Fostering community spirit and contributing towards education for under privileged children were residents of Adarsh Palm Retreat, Bellandur through a walkathon, an annual event. Organised by the Adarsh Charitable Trust in collaboration with UST Global, an IT firm, the third edition of the walkathon collected `28 lakh through corporate and residential sponsorship.
A half marathon at 6 am was the flagship event on Sunday, followed by a 10K, 5K, 1K run and volleyball finals. With a timing of 1 hour and 55 minutes, Govindarajan Thirumalai won the 21.5 kilometre race in the over 45 year category for men. Raj Rathi, runner up in the same category said, “The residents around here encouraged me to take up running around a year and a half ago. The response from the community has been tremendous over the years. Rajesh, a resident here, has run around 33 full marathons and he regularly gave us tips. He is my inspiration.”
Apart from direct donation, 14-year-old resident Rahul Rathi raised `25,000 by selling T-shirts. The funds raised will go towards enhancing the teaching staff at schools like Devarabisanahalli High School, Anjanadri High School and Dobbakannelli High School.
Speaking about the inception of the walkathon, Sudhansu Panigrahi, an ACT Trustee, said, “It was more of a casual conversation between some friends to collect funds for a good cause. We didn’t think we would raise over a lakh, but when we managed `6 lakh the first time, we decided to continue.”