Charities benefit once again from those putting Best Foot Forward

Members of the organisers Rotary Club of the City of Wolverhampton, charities and invited guests were welcomed to the City Suite at Wolverhampton Civic Centre for a cheque presentation, reception and celebration of the unique event which started in 2013.

The rotary club’s annual charity event on June 29 brought together individuals, families, and businesses to run or walk around the track at WV Active Aldersley and complete as many laps as they wish, with some participants bringing their dogs, some dressing up as super hero characters and 30 people completed 100 laps or more.

This included Earl Edwards, who dressed up as Deadpool on the day and personally did 161 laps of the track, a total of 64,400 metres or more than 40 miles, with Earl and other Centurions receiving certificates of recognition from the Mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor Linda Leach.

As part of the presentation, the Mayor of Wolverhampton welcomed everyone to the event and spoke warmly about her memories of the day, before handing over to the event founder Mike Boyce, who spoke about how important the event was and how it had grown since he came up with the idea on a holiday in Monaco.

Following this, Rotary member Richard Horrell provided details of the day and offered his own praise and thanks for those people who helped to smash the lap count record, with 15,352 laps completed to empty the charity pot, with members of the Royal School and Tettenhall College among the 590 participants on the day.

The charity pot amounted to £11,700, with the funds being split between the Rotary Club’s own charitable trust, Central Youth Theatre and Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre, with Central Youth Theatre and Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre each receiving £4,100.

Central Youth Theatre chief executive Holly Parry said the charitable donation was incredible and followed on from the charity's own fundraising initiatives.

She said: "We don't receive any regular funding, so we constantly, year on year, have to think of new, innovate and creative ways to raise funds and we ask our young volunteers to help with these initiatives, so Best Foot Forward is incredible as all the set up is done for us and we just ask our youngsters to raise sponsorships and take part.

"We're incredibly honoured because we know there's so many other charities across the city doing incredible work and we feel really grateful that young people are represented through Rotary selecting us and just ensuring that there's a lot of opportunities for young people across the city going forward."

Wolverhampton MS Therapy Centre centre manager Paula Anderson said the donations were vital to keeping the service going and said she was honoured to be there.

She said: "It's an honour to be here as the Rotary club have supported us for 38 years and, being a small charity and being self-funded, donations like this enable us to continue to provide our services within the local area and further afield.

"The funds will go towards getting some new oxygen masks, which means we can get people off a waiting list, and we're also developing a new physiotherapist service and purchasing some new equipment for exercise groups.

"The effort people have gone to is flattering and Rotary clubs have a choice, so we're really lucky that we're one of the beneficiaries and we really appreciate it."

Next year’s event takes place at WV Active Aldersley on Saturday, June 28.

For more details on the event go to wolverhamptonbestfootforward.com or rotaryclubwolverhampton.co.uk