Press Release - Harriers swell fund

Harriers race to help swell fund


Harriers race to help swell fund

AFTER Leigh Harriers raised £750 to help survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami they were stunned to learn that Oxfam's most successful crisis appeal had been closed because of the quick response of the public.

They turned to the Journal for help and as a result the funds they raised from the two-and-a-half-mile run around the streets of Leigh last month will instead be used to boost Astley Rotary Club's tsunami projects to help the devastated people of Sri Lanka get their lives back together.

Club stalwarts Derek Howarth and Joe Galvin presented the cheque to Astley Rotarian and chairman of the Leigh and District Sports Partnership, Trevor Barton, when he visited the Charles Street track to give a presentation to the committee and the young athletes about Leigh Sports Village and the Rotary Cub's plans for tsunami relief.

The appeal started when the organisation's top award winners, Paul Harris Fellows and neighbours Trevor and Gnanaka Jayasinghe, a member of the Colombo Central club, started synchronizing efforts to put the country's devastated fishing fleet back to sea, buy a new boat and build a psychiatric ward to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.

Astley Rotarians were quick to act after the killer wave struck, an emergency meeting authorising an immediate donation of £1,000 to the disaster fund, but Gnanaka, known locally as Jay, who lives in Bolton and runs a fashion warehouse making clothing for Marks and Spencer in Sri Lanka, revealed that more than just urgent medical supplies were needed.

He sent back first hand reports of the horrors created by the tidal wave, and now thanks to the close relationship of the two Rotarians their clubs are working in harmony to bring some order back to the victims' lives.

Now the Harriers have contributed to the fund and Trevor, who intends to fly out to see the work being done in Sri Lanka in June, told Jay: "Leigh Harriers has been in existence for over 100 years and is stocked full of Leigh diamonds who work very hard for no recompense and in awful conditions to try and introduce young people to athletics. Through the foresight of one of their founding fathers, they do have a ground and a miscellany of buildings that are now worth quite a lot of money.

"After a lot of heartache and soul searching, they eventually decided to put their assets into the Leigh Sports Village pot and ultimately they will be rewarded with a state of the art track and clubhouse. This project has been ongoing for about seven years. It is due to start shortly and will finish at the end of 2007.

"Even though they need the funds really for themselves, they ran a charity event and raised £750 which was earmarked for the Tsunami Relief Fund. However, when they spoke to Oxfam they were told that the fund had closed and having spoken to Lesley Richards at our local newspaper, they were reminded of the recent story about the Tsunami work that our Rotary Club was doing and contacted me.

"We would like to thank everyone who took part for their generosity."

(Story courtesy of Leigh Tyldesley and Atherton Journal)

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