Fundraising Heroes

Meet our Fundraising Heroes for 2010

Gary Stringer Walking the West Highland Way

My name is Gary Stringer. I graduated from Venture Scotland's personal development programme last year. What Venture Scotland does on a daily basis inspires me. They give people second chances and show them there is more to life than the patterns in which they have been living and offer tools for implementing positive changes.
 
 I knew I wanted to give something back to Venture Scotland after completing this course for what they had offered me and also knew it was a dream of mine to one day walk the West Highland Way. This is why during the Easter break this year I walked The Way solo. I walked over 100 miles in total, camping each night carrying everything I needed for the 6 days it took me to complete it. I don't think I would have had the confidence to carry this out alone without my knowledge of the outdoors gained from Venture Scotland.
 
 During this week, I met some wonderful people, the weather was amazing and the views were spectacular. It was the single hardest physical challenge I have ever undertaken on my own but the feeling of pride and self achievement was completely worth it. I managed to raise over £400 in total and can't think of a better charity to have raised it for personally.
 
Thanks V.S. :)
 
Gary Stringer 

http://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Stringer

ERM Run Edinburgh Chris Hoy Half Marathon

In April a corporate team from Environmental Resource Management (ERM) ran the Chris Hoy Half Marathon for Venture Scotland raising over £900. Here is their race report;

The race started at Meadowbank Stadium, where we met up in the driving rain and about five degrees, wondering what had happened to the sunny weather that had been forecast earlier in the week. We thought we might get to see Sir Chris Hoy himself, though we heard he had got married in Edinburgh the day before and apparently had better things to do!

We were keen to get going at 9am, mainly to get warm. We felt a little out of place on the start line without the customary bin-bag smocks that appeared to be the fashion of the day. Luckily the rain seemed to ease a bit when we got out on the coastal path alongside the Firth of Forth. The respite was short lived and the worst part of race was during the third quarter when we all had to run an undulating section into driving rain that the wind was blowing in our faces, before the course turned for the final leg to the finish at Musselburgh Racecourse.

After a very welcome hot bath and a rest we were all ready for some food (and drink of course), so met up for some post race celebrations at a pub in Leith donning our race T-shirts and well earned medals….and then the sun came out!!

The official results were:

* Sally Olds (1hr 37mins)

* Peter Wright (1hr 42mins)

* Peter Braithwaite (1hr 53mins)

* Pamela Coates (2hrs)

* Gail Napier (2hrs 9mins)

http://www.justgiving.com/ERMRunners