Team work

I went to the Parish Walk sponsors lunch at Scottish Widows / Clerical Medical offices on Wednesday. Being closely involved in the event through the website its good to meet with people from the sponsors and also the various media who have a mutual interest in the event.

For the past three and half years I have been working in an office in Ballsasalla where I wear jeans and T-shirt and there are probably only half a dozen days a year when I wear a suit these days. I thought my biggest challenge after running in the morning would be to remember to put on my suit. I remembered this but (not for the first time) I went to take a photo at the lunch only to find that the battery in my camera was flat!

So that it why my websites were not plastered in photos about the Parish Walk this week. Many of you will have picked them up yourself anyway, but I have been posting references  to the various media links that arose from the sponsors lunch which could just as easily be called the media lunch. Check out the Facebook page on the www.parishwalk.com website if you have not seen them.

Its absolutely without a doubt that the event would not be as it is without such professional sponsorship. What we don't always think about is how the awareness of the event attracts us. Its not just seeing people out training; its not just the publicity about closing dates (I may as well remind you that there are no late entries - not even if you've raised a million pounds in sponsorship).

So many people play a part in making us aware of the appeal, Nowhere was this better demonstrated than a brilliant Manx Radio feature that I heard on the way home that night. The winner's speech at the prize presentation and the part that the winners play in the media for the following 12 months is often under estimated. I thought the played their role model parts to perfection in Tim Glover's interview by explaining what is necessary to do well and sharing their joy when they do well.

I couldn't find the recording on Manx Radio's website but it was on their "listen again" section. I've cropped it and published it here for those that missed it or want to hear it again.

http://www.parishwalk.com/2011/PW11MR.mp3

PS after checking the link I have just realised that in the introduction it is referred to as the 2010 Parish Walk!