IE Students to organize a charity run for the disabled
On Saturday, May 5th, 2nd year BBA-LLB student Niklas Hess, 2nd year BBA-BIR Timothé Rigaudeau, Lou Ladoire, a 1st year BIR-LLB student and Elena Ballesteros, a 3rd year BBA-BIR student, in collaboration with IE Rotaract Club, will host a charity race, called Carrera Alameda at the park of Alameda del Parral for a local NGO called Asociacion de Discapacidados de San Ildefonso (ADISIL). The aim is to raise funds and motivate IE students to join forces with locals and Universidad de Valladolid’s students for a common cause.
Known locally in Segovia as the “Carrera Alameda”, the event aims to raise money to fund the furnishing of the organization’s new facility, which will provide accommodation and training grounds for its mentally and physically disabled students.
ADISIL is a Spanish labor association for people with disabilities, who are taught and trained to integrate into the society. Some of the activities they do are making glass products, which are sold at the nearby towns. They have classes once a week and go to a variety of cultural events to raise awareness about their cause.
Many of ADISIL members have physical and mental disabilities. The association's philosophy, as summarized by Lou Ladoire, is to "re-integrate people with disabilities back into society."
"ADISIL believes that because their disabilities, those members of society would be marginalized if not offered help. In the association, they learn how to contribute and become important to the world they live in. They all create a sense of internal community, where every individual relies on others to complement the other," explains Ladoire, "Simply put, ADISIL believes that its members have a different pace of learning that, with the help of its community, can be contributing to society."
“Our money is going to be used for furnishing their new facility in La Granja. The facility is going to be used not only, but also for students to live there in the case of parental absence. A lot of students, as they are getting older, will be left completely on their own as their families are equally getting older and dying, leaving their disabled members on their own,” elaborated Hess.
According to Hess and Rigaudeau, the method of donating will be up to the participant.
“The idea is that for every lap that you complete in the park, which is approximately 1 km, you donate a certain amount of money,” explains Hess, the President-founder of the Rotaract Club, “Basically, you find a sponsor or you can go to your parents, grandparents, local businesses and ask them to sponsor you and donate a certain amount of money for every lap completed. The amount of donations per lap can be as much as 1 euro, and for every lap you complete, you vouch to donate it to ADISIL.”
The idea for the race started as a proposal from Clint Goodrich, the Student Life Coordinator, who offered Rigaudeau and Hess to collaborate and organize a charity event.
“Clint proposed to us, saying "You know what guys, you could help us with this local NGO. It would be great if you could support them. They are trying to sustain themselves by selling glass to pay the teachers and professionals that come and help them to be autonomous,” described Rigaudeau.
The race has already garnered a numerous amount of support throughout Segovia.
“At the moment, we are advertising through El Adelantado; we're still negotiating with the radio station. Some of the business people are also placing ads as is the Student Government,” revealed the organisers, “On multiple occasions, we've been talking to multiple local runner clubs. We feel that we've done everything we can and the reactions have been good.”
Previously, the organizers had created an online sign-up process, through which participants would be able to sign up and ensure their participation. However, due to complications, the process has been simplified, and now potential participants can simply go to Casa de la Moneda and register there. The organizers encourage a minimum of a 3 euro donation.
During the start of the race, entrants will be asked to sign their liability waivers that will vouch for their commitment to the donation. Then, they will receive a bracelet with sponsor logos.
Once the entrants have started running, each lap will be stamped. After finishing their laps, the entrants will go to the hosting stand, where the stamps will be accounted and put on paper, through which the organizers will contact the relevant organizations to collect the donations.
Both Rigaudeau and Hess expressed that organizing the race greatly affected them.
“The race actually made me feel important for the people at ADISIL as well as for the people that will participate in it,” stated Rigaudeau, “You feel great and you feel that you're contributing to the well-being of society, which is something that everyone should experience and experiment in their lives so that they could go to bed, feeling happy and proud.”
“The idea is to be involved to make a little difference and we are in a lucky position here to have everything provided. Hence, using our fortunate situation to help other people is quite important and I think we should all do that,” concluded Hess.
The race will start on Saturday, at 11:00 with the meeting point at Casa de la Moneda, from where the participants can register and start their run for charity. You can sign up here.
Comments