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Not so mad after all…
Spar Zimbabwe
May 18, 2004

They say it is mad men and English men who run around in the mid-day sun. Well it is not true. On Saturday 15 May about a thousand people converged at Old Georgians sports club and at 2:30 exactly about 780 of them started running or walking. The occasion? The fourth edition of the annual SPAR family run and fair in aid of CHILDLINE.

There are lots of good folks out there and they came to exhibit, walk around or simply run and walk. ZTV was there! Honest! They have a kiddies programme called KIDSNET and teenage presenters who asked Gea Chrisophides Director of Childline and myself quite a lot of questions. They also interviewed a young boy who had hurt himself at Water World and whose family we had allowed to hire a stand to raise money for his operation. He was not really competing with CHILDLINE because he is a child in need as well.

Miss Zimbabwe was there too. Honest! But, unfortunately she did not kiss me, even on the cheek. What cheek! She gave away the prizes at the end of the day while I stood there pretending to be important.

And then there were the MGs. Little cars worth at least 15 000 pounds each. Two of them. Honest! They were driven by mother and son, Mandy and Michael Gaskin and led the runners from start to finish. It was a great family day and fair.

Then of course the six SPAR stores that fed the masses with everything from boerewors rolls to SPAR brand water. What wonderful community support from these independent retailers who donated their proceeds to CHILDLINE. Close on their heels were our supplier friends and in no particular order: Wholesale fruiterers, Schweppes, Coca Cola, Crystal Candy, Pinnacle Micro, AFDIS, Unilever, National Foods who in total made millions of dollars worth of contributions. Honest!

And finally Round Table. A charity outfit and effort run entirely by men. Honest! And what a splendid job they did in organizing the run. I have two words to describe Stuart Gemmil and his team: Selfless commitment.

And so back to the mad dogs and Englishmen. So sorry to dissapoint but the crowd was a beautiful multi-racial Zimbabwean crowd. Yes we had a few runners from the British Embassy but they did not look mad to me and they ran in a straight line. In the end, we raised $8 million for CHILDLINE. Gea looked happy, I was very happy and the children of Zimbabwe will be that much happier because with this kind of support, CHILDLINE will continue doing their wonderful work with children and SPAR will continue to support their efforts as part of our corporate citizenship agenda. But wait!

A final word on madness: A SPAR fun run participant is running past a mental institution situated along the new route. He hears chanting behind the high walls of the mental hospital: "Thirteen! Thirteen!"

Curious to find out what’s going on, he finds a small hole in the wall and bends over to peek inside. Someone on the other side pokes him hard in the eye and everyone inside starts chanting: Fourteen! Fourteen! Fourteen!"

To all those who took part in the run: Thank you from SPAR for helping to "light a candle, instead of cursing the darkness."

Albert Gumbo
Group Corporate Affairs and Training Manager.

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