A HUGE thank you was bestowed upon sponsors of the Bendigo Bank Coffs Harbour Running Festival which was held on 11 September 2022.

With over 1,000 people participating the event was deemed a huge success with a bumper turnout for the tenth annual event.

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As always there was a hardworking team volunteering many hours to get the event up and running.

The powerhouse behind the running festival is Keelan Birch, who hosted the thank-you event with major supporters, Rotary Club Coffs Harbour, at their monthly meeting at Coffs Harbour Surf Club.

Representatives from many of the sponsors, big and small, along with Mayor Paul Amos, attended, and received framed certificates of appreciation.

“The Coffs Harbour Running Festival is a community event and has raised well over $200,000 since it began a decade ago, benefitting various local children’s charities,” Event Director Keelan Birch told News Of The Area.

“Raising $40,000 for local Rotary kids’ charities, such as Life Education, Early Connections and The Run Beyond Project, could not have been achieved without the amazing support from the community and sponsors.”

“After two years of postponements we did not know how the event would go.

“It was fantastic to see so many people keen to enter and take part,” he said.

Coffs Harbour Running Festival had strong support from over 25 sponsors, including Bendigo Bank with overall naming rights, the City of Coffs Harbour Coastal Works, Beachside Radiology with naming rights over the Half Marathon, C.ex Group naming the 10k run, Key Employment headlining the 5k run and amongst them News Of The Area.

“The date of the next Coffs Harbour Running Festival is set for Sunday 10 September 2023 with registrations opening in March 2023,” said Keelan.

Speaking at the thank-you event, Michelle Versluys and Chris Barnes, who run The Run Beyond Project at Nambucca Heads High School, thanked the organisers for their donation, saying that the project was founded on young people running and talking and the difference this makes to their outlook on life, with such things as goal setting.

The Run Beyond program, working with disadvantaged kids, operates across a number of schools in NSW.

“We’ve been running it at Nambucca Heads School for four years,” said Michelle.

“The Run Beyond program gifts a pair of running shoes to the kids participating and for some that’s only the second pair of shoes they have,” added Chris.

“It’s a wonderful program seeing the kids, schools, community and proud parents working together.”

Run Beyond members manned the water stand and loved the connection with all the runners.

Stacey Bayliss from the Early Connections’ team who also manned a drinks stand said, “We loved cheering on all the runners from the water stand and were grateful to be a part of the festival.”

Early Connections provides early childhood intervention, children aged from birth to seven years old who have delays in their development or a disability.

“We rely on donations to run our Gumnuts program.

“We know if we get in early and support the child’s development it’s going to give them the best outcomes, so we are really appreciative of the support we get through donations and fundraising,” she said.

By Andrea FERRARI