Marathon March will help fund healthy holiday camp for local children
This year’s Palace for Life Marathon March, powered by Utilita, will provide vital funds for projects that support young people in south London who have been affected by the ongoing pandemic. One such project will be the Autumn Extravaganza, a week of activities designed to keep children healthy and safe during the October half-term.
As part of the Autumn Extravaganza, a week-long holiday camp will take place at Heavers Farm Primary School, where every child will be provided with a healthy lunch cooked by the chefs at Crystal Palace F.C. A range of activities will also take place, including football, tennis and dance to ensure children complete their recommended 150 minutes of exercise per week.
In addition, free sport and educational workshops will run as part of the Premier League Kicks programme and we will be welcoming a new cohort of teenagers to our NCS programme at Selhurst Park.
The Marathon March is taking place on Saturday 10th October, with 130 Palace fans walking 26.2 miles across south London with the aim of raising over £45,000 for the Foundation. Fans will walk the route in socially distanced bubbles of six, setting off at staggered times throughout the morning to ensure their safety.
Palace for Life CEO Mike Summers, who will be completing the full route, said: “The Marathon March, powered by Utilita, is our real showpiece event of the year and we are delighted that it will be going ahead this weekend, albeit with some changes in place to keep our walkers safe.
“The money raised will make an enormous difference to our work and this year will mean we can run our Autumn Extravaganza, through which we will be providing hundreds of healthy meals to local children, thanks to the Palace chefs, as well as giving them access to free sport and educational workshops.
“We know that this year more than ever, families are struggling to provide for their children and we hope that we can help to ease some of that pressure.”
The Autumn Extravaganza will follow the success of August’s Summer Extravaganza, where more than 400 children attended activities with us during the summer holidays. 85% of those young people were eligible for free school meals and 86% had low physical activity levels or were physically inactive before joining the programme.
One parent, who is a key worker and was unable to access her usual childcare, said: “My daughter was apprehensive about attending the summer club, but the first day she arrived, the staff made her feel welcomed and reassured her at the gate. She said the staff were friendly, encouraging, fun and engaged really well with her and her peers. She was excited to attend every day, and looked forward to each day’s activities.”
You can donate towards the Marathon March and help fund our Autumn Extravaganza, as well as other activities we are running for young people in south London HERE.