Here & Now Issue 35 | August 2019

COMMUNITY MATTERS
A running start
For all the good causes they support,
and despite the marvellous carnival they
give us in August every year, most of us
would struggle to associate the Rotary
Club with young people doing exercise.
A RETIRED GENTLEMEN’S luncheon club with ritualised
graces and speeches? Let’s be honest – yes, that’s what a lot
of us imagine. Young people running around an athletics track?
Not so much.
The adult distance is 5k, but the junior event will cover 2k, a
much more manageable distance for young people who might
be completely new runners. It will be open to anyone from
4-14 years of age, starting in September, and then happening
every Sunday morning on the athletics track at Worthing
Leisure Centre.
“It will be free for young people to enter,” says Marlene. “The
track will be a really safe environment for them. We want
young people getting out of bed every Sunday morning excited
about getting down to the track in search of a new personal
best.”
DETERMINED
TO CONNECT
WITH PEOPLE
OF ALL AGES
It turns out we can all be forgiven our
appalling prejudice because the new
president of Worthing Rotary, Marlene Butler,
would barely disagree. “There’s much more to
us than most people realise, but we know we need to update
our image,” she cheerfully concedes, “and putting some funding
into the launch of the Junior parkrun is just
one of the ways we’re going to do it.”
Prom Walk
Sun 18 Aug
Sign up
worthingrotary.org
Rotary Carnival
Sun 25 – Mon 26 Aug
Junior parkrun
Determined to
connect with people
of all ages, the Rotary
Club are working in partnership with
Worthing Community Chest, South
Downs Leisure and the Council to help
some local mums set up the youth
version of the parkrun that dominates
the seafront every Saturday morning.
JUNIOR PARKRUN TO BE LAUNCHED
AS A YOUTH VERSION OF THE
SATURDAY MORNING PARKRUN
Children with special needs are welcome
to join once their disability is registered
with parkrun. The aim is to create a truly
inclusive atmosphere. “More people,
more active, more often,” as South Downs
Leisure likes to say.
Prom walk
To help get things
going, the Rotary
and Worthing
Community Chest
have also teamed
up to organise a
fundraising Prom
Walk in August. Young people (and older
ones too) are invited to sign up for a 5k
or 10k walk, a gentle introduction to a
world of exercise that might one day
lead to the Junior parkrun or even the
slightly wilder Dark Run at Tide of Light
in November.
There are, as any vaguely attentive Worthing resident knows
all too well, plenty of fundraising walks along the seafront.
There are walks in the light and
there are walks in the dark. And
marathons and half-marathons
and obstacle races and 10ks and
triathlons. But this brand new
addition to the crowded field
does have something slightly
different going on. While the
entry money will go to the
Rotary and the Chest, every
walker will be able to raise funds
for their own community group
or chosen charity. They can even
choose to raise funds for the
Junior parkrun and help to get it
up – and running! n
Karl Allison
Worthing
Community Chest
HEREANDNOWMAG.CO.UK HERE & NOW | August 2019 | 9