Fit, firm, lots of stamina and a charitable good heart are what you needed to be part of the Rhodes cyclathon for charity.
Fit, firm, lots of stamina and a charitable good heart are what you needed to be part of the Rhodes cyclathon for charity.
Last Friday the Rhodes health suite hosted a cyclathon from 8am to 8pm to raise money for a Grahamstown health care facility.
There were no fitness checks or pre-requisites, if you felt you could do it then you were in; anyone and everybody was welcome.
A total of 29 bikes were booked for use throughout the day at R30 per hour. “The aim is to raise R10 000, but more will be great,” said Shirley King, cyclathon organiser and Rhodes student.
She said so far this had been the best year ever because there was more and better support which was not there before.
The cyclathon, in its fifth year, had raised R8 000 by 11am. “We also have an extra R5 000 from last year because no charities applied for it,” King said.
Jess Goble, a 27-year-old biochemistry PhD student was among the participants who was planning to sweat it out for 12 hours, 8am to 8pm.
“I am not getting off this bike, they are going to have to carry me off it with a stretcher ,” Goble said. “I am an athlete and do a lot of endurance sport, this is my first cyclathon and charity motivated me to take part.” It has since been established that Goble did indeed cycle for twelve hours.
Sponsors for the event included Checkers, Rat and Parrot, Pick n Pay, Shakatak sportswear, Spur, Ginos and Reddits.
Donations included vouchers, drinks, sportswear and food for the participants. Spotted at the event to show support was Gary Godfrey, a manager for Shakatak sportswear in East London.
“We deal with sportswear and this event gave us an opportunity to give back to the community, it is a good cause,” Godfrey said.
He further said this event gave him and his team an opportunity to identify opportunities for charity in future.
The event was in conjunction with Rhodes Health care week. King said as long as she is at Rhodes she will make sure that the event takes place, “It is all about giving back to the Grahamstown community,” she said.
King confirmed that by the end of the event they had raised more than R10 000 and were still waiting for outstanding monies. A health care charity to benefit from the proceeds still needs to be identified.
