FCC raise £3,348 for 3 local charities!
Recreational cricket has been hold since the start of the summer and isn’t starting until this weekend, however at Findon CC, we certainly made the most of June!
Throughout June, at FCC we challenged ourselves to run, walk or cycle to reach a combined effort of 4000 miles, and in the process of raising £1,867 (year FCC was founded) for Chestnut Tree House, St Barnabas House and Sussex Cricket Foundation.
At the end of June, we had almost doubled our initial target with a total of 7,852 miles, a distance that would take you from our club to Bali eastwards, or Buenos Aires to the South.
We had 84 club members, ranging in age from 15 to 70+, undertaking a total of 1,365 activities throughout the month whilst also inspiring 133 other participants from other clubs across Sussex (Goring Cricket Club, West Chiltington & Thakeham Cricket Club & West Wittering Cricket Club). A total of 49.8 days of activities was completed (1194 hours), with 48 people averaging more than 20 minutes per day of exercise, and 25 covering more than 40 minutes per day.
We saw some standout achievements on our very own ’Super Saturday’ (20th June), with Ryan Meighan completing his first ever marathon in 3hrs 44mins; Harry Herbert cycled 90 miles in one day from Box Hill to Dorking; Jon Godden walked round 5 cricket clubs totalling 17 miles ; and Denise Wadeson ran 33 miles from 8am Saturday morning to 7am Sunday morning as she completed a mile (or more) on the hour, every hour.
As well as bringing us all together to achieve a common goal, regular exercise benefited many participants both physically and mentally. On top of all this, most importantly we’ve raised £3,348 for the three local charities close to our hearts.
17 year old, Josh Lambert, who covered 281 miles throughout the month, said “I personally wanted to support Chestnut Tree House, because they give young children with special needs opportunities and care they will remember for a lifetime. I have friends whose siblings are disabled, and so I know how much fun and happiness it brings to them, in being able to have the incredible care that the hospice is able to give those children in need. The charity has undoubtedly been put under a lot of pressure during Covid-19, therefore I wanted to push myself to ride my bike as far as I could throughout the month of June.”
Club Secretary, Mike Metters, who completed a total of 63 activities throughout the month added, “I have lived in Worthing all my life, and over the years St Barnabas has helped many family friends with end of life care. Both my parents worked as volunteers when they retired, and my sister-in-law is a nurse there. I know that Coronavirus has meant a huge shortfall in their income, as fundraising events can’t take place and their charity shops have been closed. So I’m really pleased Findon Cricket Club have been able to raise some funds through walking, running and cycling throughout June.”
Denise Wadeson, mum of junior leg spinner Oliver Wadeson echoed, “It’s amazing to be able to give back to these local, well deserving charities, St Barnabas and Chestnut Tree who have helped so many local friends and families through illness and loss. My 2 teenage boys and my husband are 4th & 5th generation local cricketers so to be able to also help raise funds for the Sussex Cricket Foundation means young people can continue to enjoy the sport that so many others do too. It was totally worth losing a night’s sleep for!”.
Samuel Dunkley, pace bowler who covered 142 miles said, “Being able to help the charities recover from the impact of Covid 19 is very rewarding and a great opportunity whilst having fun and getting fit. Spending more time outside has also had benefits to my personal wellbeing.”Mary Bye, Community Fundraiser at St Barnabas House added her thanks, “Thank you Findon Cricket Club members for your brilliant teamwork and fundraising for St Barnabas House, which enables hospice care for our patients and families, now and in the future.”
Sussex CCC have thanked us for our efforts, by giving those involved free access to a County Championship or 50 over game in the 2021 season.
We hope that you have enjoyed being involved with this joint effort. We’re sure the exercise will have given you personally physical and mental health benefits that shouldn’t be overlooked, so it would be great to see this continue.Again, a massive thank you to everybody who has participated in either the exercise or the fundraising. #FCC4000
A massive thanks and well done to event organiser, Harry Metters.
