Mysuru Kiddathon 2019
Event Location:
Event Description: Funds Raised:
Gross Profit: 945,462
Net Profit: 679,329
Participants: 650 Children
“Criticisms, negative publicity, tension, worried of low participation”, so many hurdles but yet, what an event, good appreciation from public, amazing publicity, smiles on “Special Kids” through projects and FUN N LAUGHTER FELLOWSHIPS. Are you excited to hear this success story?
MYSURU KIDDATHON 2019 – a marathon for children from age group of 2 yrs – 15 yrs ranging from 400mtrs, 1 kms, 3 kms and 5 kms.
Mysore Elite Round Table 256 and Mysore Elite Ladies Circle 141 jointly conduct our yearly fund-raising event MYSURU KIDDATHON 2019 in the past 3 years. Based on the success of this event in the initial year, this year we planned this event in a grand way, we took it as a challenge to make the event bigger and better in every possible way. There is a saying “True leaders don’t create followers, they create more Leaders” and this is why we thank our Chairman LMF Tr.Pavan Shroff and Chairperson Cr.Dakshayini who gave us, convenors, a free hand, built trust, tolerance and patience and many other leadership qualities. Most of all, they followed up every day through phone call and held meetings twice or thrice a week for regular updates of the event. This made us push harder, but there was no pressure. The fun we had during the fellowships after the meetings was marvellous.
This year, we approached sponsors, but as we all know, that the market was going through a rough patch, many sponsors backed out. We are indebted to Mr.Abhilash, Managing Director, Zeus Biotech Pvt Ltd., who understood the purpose of the event and came forward to become our title sponsor. Once our title sponsor was confirmed things started looking brighter by the day. The tension was high due to low registrations in the initial days, and the main tension was the Ayodhya Verdict which scared us out of our wits, we didn’t want to postpone the event after all the hard work done by all of us. We want to mention our heartfelt gratitude to the officers of Mysore City Police and the officials of University of Mysore, who helped us, in conducting this event smoothly.
“Where there is a will, there is a way”, the previous night of MYSURU KIDDATHON 2019, we Tablers and Circlers were at the venue of the event making all necessary arrangements, but God had one more challenge for us, “The Weather”. A spell of unseasonal rain for few hours left the entire ground in a puddle. We were very concerned and sat in a restaurant, Infront of the TV, seeing the news, seeing the weather forecast and by the time we left, it was nearly 2am. The rain could only dampen the ground but not our spirit. We most of us couldn’t sleep, but we were there in the grounds at 5am. At the venue at 5am and what we saw???? We saw the entry of the ground, there was puddle filled with slush, but the track was safe. I and Tr.Sharath had to hail an auto, saw some mud nearby and we requested him to help us spill the fresh mud on to the puddle for which, he kindly obliged. During this time, the participants and their parents were walking in for the event. While the other Tablers kept the parents and children busy with the inauguration of the event through ribbon cutting, warm up through Zumba and instructing the children about the event, Tr. Sharath and I had poured enough mud on the wet area (nearly 6 trips of the auto filled with mud) and made sure the patch was safe for the kids to run on it. When the event started with the 5km run, the parents were surprised to see the efforts to make the patch safe and they appreciated tremendously our efforts.
A special mention must be made and a salute to the resilience of Ms.Vibha Sagar, aged 9 yrs, participated in the 3 kms category. She is a Specially-Abled child but managed to complete the race while few of the regular participants were huffing-n-puffing towards the finish line.
In the 400mtr category, (2yrs – 5yrs) it was as much fun for the people watching as it was for the children who ran for the first time, some along with their parents and the rest alone. This run brought more appreciation from parents for MYSURU KIDDATHON 2019.
What do I say now? The event was a grand success. The sponsors were happy with the unprecedented publicity of the event and ROUND TABLE as a whole received tremendous exposure. In the run up to the event, we published regular articles in daily newspapers, pasted posters on the autos and shops, aired radio jingles, gave interviews to the press and Radio, Pamphlets were distributed in most schools in and around Mysore, social media was abuzz with posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. We were surprised to have received positive response from the sponsors for next year’s event!
As a RTI WEEK – GO GREEN initiative, our cause for the event was “RUN FOR A GREENER MYSORE” we distributed a total of 1000 saplings to all participants, guests and the volunteers.
Further, as another RTI WEEK initiative – “TARE ZAMMEN PAR”, we conducted a 400 mtr special run for the kids of NEREEKSHE School for Special Children and Mathrumandali Special School. The excitement on their faces was truly inspiring. We also donated sporting equipment’s to the “Special Kids”.
We were very thrilled to have received great appreciation from the public for this event. The event was trending on social media for all the right reasons. We received numerous responses through Whatsapp messages, Facebook updates and Instagram posts.
Lastly, we had a fun filled fellowship at our Tr.Sharath’s house where the Chairman and Chairperson gave a token of appreciation to all the Tablers and Sq.Legs of MERT 256, Circlers of MELC 141 and Tabler’s wives.
Friends; Fundraising is so much fun. It encourages having more fellowships, as the process of conducting a fundraiser event involves many fun filled fellowships.
