The streets of Claremont were awash with bright green T-shirts as nearly 2000 runners representing clubs across the city, took part in the Woolworths Move for your Health 6km run/walk on Sunday November 4, in association with SANParks.
The event formed part of the Landmarks half marathon.
Race director Ted Vickery is highly supportive of the Move for Health initiative and the resultant School’s Mass Participation competition that plays out on the day.
Pieter Twine, general manager of the Woolworths and MySchool Fundraising programme who also enthusiastically ran the 6km event with his son, elaborates on their seven year involvement with this event.
“With the Woolworths focus on healthier lifestyles, the Woolworths Educational programme has been running for 15 years.
“It provides curriculum based nutrition and exercise in primary schools and so encourages children to live healthier and to be more active.
The Move for Health 6km run/walk and our health track are examples of how Woolworths support children exercising”.
Other partners included Futurelife, SANParks, Claremont Rotary and MySchool. Amplification of the health messages and training programmes was provided by the Cape Community Newspapers, which publishes Athlone News, Supersport’s Let’s Play and Smile FM.
Dr Phatho Zondi, CEO of the Sport Science Institute of South Africa, having run the 6km event, said: “The Move For Health campaign is strongly aligned to SSISA’s core philosophy so it’s a great privilege to be able to bring various communities together to mark this initiative each year.”
While the main focus of the Landmarks event is the 21.1km and the 6km event, there was much else on offer.
Keep an eye out for news of the winners of the 2018 School’s Mass Participation competition as well as for pictures of our visit to the Red Cross Children’s hospital where thousands of toys donated by runners with big hearts, will be handed over.
We have no doubt that if we can keep up this momentum and positive behaviour in Cape Town – there can be a ripple effect far beyond our borders – and our overall score in the 2018 Healthy Active Kids SA (HAKSA) report card will improve.
How wonderful if this campaign grew legs and was adopted by other clubs, corporates and institutions around SA. Now that would be an amazing story to tell.
There are 10 months to go before we kick off our 2019 campaign – so about 300 days to fill with whatever sorts of physical activity you enjoy – be it parkruns, forest and mountain hikes, playing Frisbee on the beach or tag-rugby in the neighbourhood park. We don’t mind – so long as you are looking after your health.
Kathleen McQuaide is the Sport Science Institute of South Africa’s strategic, media and sponsorship manager.