Cycle, run and walk to benefit education in Botrivier The community of Botrivier braces itself to host close to 2000 athletes on the 27 October for the 8th Botrivier van der Stel Pass Challenge consisting of cycling, running and walking. Known for a great vibe – this is a very popular race which is presented by the community in aid of funding for promising students in Botrivier. The race starting for the 8th time in 2012 is the hosted by the Botrivier Education Foundation and serves as their main fundraising event. From a mere 80 athletes 8 years ago, 1600 entered during 2011. This is more than a race. Success has proved to ordinary members of the community what they can achieve through unity and hard work. Poor people from Botrivier duck deep into their pockets during the infant years of the race. As the race grew it was more and more professionally organised. Since 2010 online entries was introduced on the BEF website, www.bef.org.za. The growth of the event is manifested in the 2012 race budget of R114 000 with prize money close to R35 000. This is a proven human development exercise which has brought pride to the people of Botrivier. The professional nature of the race is anchored in a well deliberated marketing campaign and close to 100 marshals servicing the various MTB and running routes. In addition every community organization taking part in the form of hosting a water table, helping with registration or any other part of the race logistics is rewarded with a cash incentive. Various schools have come on board and those with a minimum of 50 entrants also receive a cash amount with further prizes for the school with the most pre-entries. Athletes usually echo the true community spirit of the race based on the above organisational participation in the hosting of the Botrivier van der Stel Pass Challenge. A welcome addition in 2011 was the 6km cultural historic race. This is the first such “race” known to take place in South Africa and is called the Botrivier Cultural Historic “Race”. With 130 participants in 2011 it surpassed all expectations. It is called a “race” because participants are expected to arrive at 4 cultural historic sites at a certain time and need to complete the route within 2½ hours in order to receive a medal. Individuals from Botrivier convey interesting facts about at the 4 sites within a specific time period where after the race proceeds. The cultural walkers in 2011 vowed to come back in 2012 to learn more about the history of Botrivier. The 21km and 10km running events is an official Boland Athletics race. On Saturday 27 October 2012 Botrivier station will be a hype of activity as athletes prepare to take part in three MTB races; 60 km, 40 km and 15 km and three running and walking races; 21km,10km, 5km and 6km Cultural historic race. For online entries and more information on the 8th Botrivier van der Stel Pass Challenge visit the BEF website at www.bef.org.za. If you wish to become a sponsor of this educational fundraising event then contact Anthony at [email protected] or phone 0837732574. Sponsors are especially needed for wider school participation.
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