Supporting womens education and children's health and play in Palestine
Our fiend and supporter Judy walked for 50 hours over 24 days to cover one kilometre for every year of her life.
She had 150+ encounters with individuals, couples, families, friends and dogs and toiled up the hill to complete my 73rd kilometre lap where she was duly presented with a certificate by the Mayor.
You can read her final instalment here
Many people do their small park BIG RUN DIY activities in groups, with some amazingly creative and impressive efforts recorded. Since the beginning five years ago Good Gym Sheffield has put together 24 hour teams who have performed some extraordinary and inspiring efforts. Here Good Gym Sheffield member Andrew tells us what they did for #spBR21.
“Good Gym Sheffield joined Small Park Big Run on what has become an annual fixture for us. We had 18 runners – and between us we covered the whole 24 hours – often with more than one runner out at any given time.
“There were some truly amazing efforts – Dana ran for the whole 24 hours, running over 100 miles on a treadmill and raising over £1,500 for the SPBR charities; Rachel ran a mile each hour for the whole 24 hours; Celine ran the Limestone Way [46 miles]; and Katy ran the Round Sheffield Run – twice [30 miles]!
“The mere mortals in the team hit the trails in the parks, woods and streets around Sheffield and the Peak – with one or two unable to resist the lure of the Meersbrook Hill.
“At midday on Sunday a number of us joined the event in Meersbrook Park – and the weather was kind enough to let us sit out for a picnic and enjoy the singing and music. We’ll definitely be back next year – supporting the event once more – and “looking forward” to 24 hours on the hill.
“Until then our thoughts are with those in Palestine.”
From all at #spBR21 thank you Good Gym! Find out more about Good Gym Sheffield here
This year at small park BIG RUN we chose the theme of health because that has been such a prominent public discussion in Britain and across the world.
We have put together some posters describing some of the gross inequalities faced by Palestinians in their daily lives, things we often take for granted. Health is yet another realm of life where Israeli apartheid holds sway.
The first poster is here and then follow the links
Judy is walking a lap of our local park for each year of her life as her #spbr21 activity and meets people on the way, talking to them about Palestine. This is part 2 of her local adventures.
The work of the children’s centres we support has not stopped during the recent bombardment of Gaza. In fact they are more needed than ever. You can read more in the latest newsletter about the children’s projects to find out how the money you raise will be spent.
So we call it a run cos that’s what we do.
But we know running is not everyones cup of tea and this is a whole community thing: we want to be as inclusive as we can!
Our fantastic new buff design uses recycled plastic. It costs just £5 and all profits go towards the children’s projects and women’s scholarship fund.
We also have Palestinian flags for sale to carry around on your DIY activity prices below:
Both will be on sale in the park on June 19/20 but you can also order now via email. We will contact you to arrange delivery or pick-up.
Members of a women’s writing group in Sheffield have compiled videos of poems about Palestine, Freedom, Running and Health (this year’s particular theme) for Small Park Big Run 2021.
There is one poem (at least) every hour on the hour for the 24 hours of the run. You will find them on our Facebook and Youtube channels.
We have stunningly powerful poems by local Sheffield and Derbyshire poets as well as the ‘great sower of hope’, Mahmood Darwish (pictured), Susan Abulhawa, Naomi Shihab Nye and Rafeef Ziaddah.
Be sure to set your clocks to watch the broadcasts as they come out!
The web version of the timetable is here and a pdf is here
Today, there was a run 3.5 kilometres from Sheikh Jarrah to Silwan.
All runners wore t-shirts that had # 7850 printed on back, the number of Palestinian Jerusalemites under threat. During the run, one runner (@jalalak_jojo on twitter ) tweeted about being beaten several times by Israeli forces:
“I am a runner. I run marathons around whole world. Never have I been attacked violently by police forces as I was today, during the Jerusalem run from #SaveSheikhJarrah to #SaveSilwan. I was beaten six times, attacked by Israeli forces, for running in my ancestral town & city.”
You can see this on the video:
