A County Armagh-based charity’s staff and volunteers will be out in force on the Mall this weekend as they undertake to run five laps, every hour on the hour, to support their vital work with children in dozens of local schools.
Reach Mentoring have styled their event ’Share The Load, Carry The Weight’, for day and daily that is precisely what they do!
Between 9am and 6pm this Saturday, June 20, nine teams will each run five kilometres – five laps of the Mall – clocking up 45kms each by the end of a positively leg-tiring day.
As Jane Dixon, community engagement and fundraising co-ordinator, told Armagh I : “Some people are doing it individually, some people are taking on the entire ultra-marathon to do it all themselves and some people are doing it in relays.
“The event is called Share The Load, Carry The Weight, and this is to help others understand what it is that we at Reach Mentoring do. We’ll be doing each lap and we’ll be carrying weights. Most of us will have weighted vests on or we’ll be carrying weights in our hands or in rucksacks or something like that.
“Carrying the weight is to symbolise how we help share the load of the burdens that our mentees carry. We call our young people, our pupils in school, those who come to see us, mentees, because we want to lighten their load. We provide one-to-one mentoring sessions in school. The young people are referred to us by their school and we meet with young people on a one-to-one basis weekly and just help them journey through whatever difficulties or difficult circumstances they’re navigating.
“We’re with them for the journey to help them and Share The Load, Carry The Weight is to help symbolise what it is we do.”
Reach Mentoring is a registered charity, having been established almost 13 years ago.
It provides a vital lifeline to people who are struggling, for whatever reason, who just need that listening ear or helping hand.
And for Jane, she is delighted that it is “making a real difference” to those young people, while the staff and volunteers also benefit from the entire experience in such a positive and rewarding way.
“We work currently across seven hub areas in 54 schools,” she explained. “We’re in Banbridge, Lurgan, Central Craigavon, Portadown, Armagh, Dungannon and Magherafelt.
“The schools refer young people to us; they identify young people who are in need of help and support and it’s a really varied range of reasons why the young person is referred to us. It can be for early intervention, mental health, maybe they’re suffering with low self-esteem, lack of confidence, even, unfortunately, those entertaining self-harming and suicidal thoughts.
“We have those who just suffer from anxiety and getting out to school for them was just a really big issue. We also have those who are ill themselves or have been through an illness or coping with maybe grief or a long-term illness at home with parents or siblings.
“We have those who are in the care system and we also have those who are carers themselves for sick parents too.
“So a lot of our kids have a lot of challenges that they just need support with and we give that support just really through listening, and being with them, and journeying with them, and going through whatever it is they’re going through.
“There’s somebody to talk to about it, to just help lighten what it is they’re carrying so that they don’t feel they’re doing it all on their own.
“It is very rewarding for us because the feedback that we get from our mentors is very positive. We do make a real positive impact and that’s why we do what we do.
“While ultimately we’re doing it for the young people to help them, the truth of the matter is that it is rewarding for us and we do get as much out of it as they do. We build a relationship and we care deeply about the young person and want to see them doing well and it’s great to see them making progress.”
In order to carry out such an important function in the community requires funding.
And the charity looks to various sources to make it happen – while trying to swell the coffers with events such as this.
“Our one-to-one Reaching Mentoring programme is funded entirely by donations from Trusts, churches, businesses and individuals,” added Jane. “We would apply for donations through Trusts or grants and things like that, but a huge volume of what we have comes in directly from churches, businesses and individuals who sign up to give to us regularly or through the likes of this fundraiser that we’re doing.
“All staff members do get involved in fundraising and will all do something individually, as well as things like this group effort too to help raise as much as we can.”
Reach Mentoring has around 20 staff members and three-office based workers. And they are backed up with a band of ready and willing volunteers who help deliver for the young people involved.
“Our volunteer mentors usually come from local churches,” said Jane. “We’re a Christian organisation and all of our volunteers are Christians. They come from the local churches and then they’re serving in their local area.
“We do get a lot of support through the churches and, as a matter of fact, on Saturday, it’s St Mark’s in Armagh who are helping us on the day by allowing us use of their premises, so that we have somewhere to leave bags, to use the bathroom and make teas and coffees in between laps and things like that. So they’re very good to us.”
Part of the agreement with the Trustees who have permitted use of Armagh’s famous Mall for the nine hours on Saturday is that no fundraising can take place there on the day.
But a JustGiving page has been set up and donations are already rolling in.
At the same time, the Reach Mentoring team would be delighted to speak to anyone who wants to learn more about what they do…
“Anyone is very welcome to go over to St Mark’s Church Hall and we’ll have flyers there,” said Jane. “We’ll have somebody at hand there all day. There’ll be tea and coffee and juice and all age groups are welcome to come in and find out more about what it is we do.
“We will have one of our wee banners up at the driveway to the church hall and then there’ll be another wee banner in the church hall, so people hopefully will see from our banners on display where it is we will be if they want to come in and find out more about us.”
Around 80 are expected to participate in Saturday’s run, with staff enlisting the help of family and friends to run with them and ensure the event is a huge success.
Certainly, in a very short space of time, the money has been steadily coming in.
And, equally certain is that it will make a real difference to those whom the charity supports.
“We have a target to raise a minimum of £10,000 between us. To put that into perspective, £10,000 should cover approximately 870 one-to-one mentoring sessions,” added Jane. “It’s getting a bit of momentum. We’re very pleased.
“We would like to thank St Mark’s Church for letting us use their premises and the Mall Trustees for allowing us to use the Mall as well, because we are very appreciative for the facilities to be able to do this.
“We’re delighted with everyone who has supported us so far. Friends and family have started donating already and those who are participating.
“ But we’re hopeful once others know about what we’re doing – and why we’re doing it – that they’ll get behind us too to help us achieve our target.”
If you would like to support the fundraising efforts of Reach Mentoring, you can do so here.
