BENGALURU: Advocating the motto of ‘healthy heart, satisfied soul’, more than 2,000 people gathered on a Sunday morning to take part in APR Walkathon 2014, which has become one of the biggest events in the city’s calendar. The event witnessed participation from people from Bengaluru as well as neighbouring cities like Chennai.
In its fourth edition, the APR Walkathon is an annual fundraising event for the APR Charitable Trust. Unique because it is composed entirely of residents of a single residential scheme, the trust focuses on issues related to education, health and women’s empowerment for the labourers who work at the Adarsha Palm Retreat campus in Bellandur.
The walkathon was flagged off by Arjuna awardee, Reeth Abraham and included several categories like the half marathon, 10K, 5K, 2K as well as a charity walk and a costume walk.
“It was a great event. I have been participating in the walkathon since its beginning. I think this is a great opportunity for those who love running to contribute to the society. The trust is doing a lot of good activities and we all chip in with whatever we can,” said Sundi Natarajan, India Head for Tabtor, a company that makes tablet-based math applications for kids. Sundi’s company has donated their software to a school for the children of labourers and workers near Adarsha Palm Retreat. Sundi also finished third in the half marathon on Sunday.
Also an attempt to bring members of the community closer, the event included a cultural programme, 40 stalls selling food, clothes, handicrafts, sports apparel and photos as well as a farmers’ market.
“We are the second biggest race in the city in terms of participation but we are the only race to have an element of charity mixed in. As a result, we try to keep our expenses low and aim to contribute between 90-95 per cent of our collection towards the trust’s activities,” said Govindarajan Thirumalai, president of APR Charitable Trust. Govindarajan’s family came down from Chennai to participate in the race.
Talking about the trust’s activities, trustee Sudhansu Panigrahi said, “We focus on helping people in the long term. As a result, our focus areas are education and health. We help promising children with scholarships and help them make the move from government schools to private schools when they want to.”
The walkathon was held within the APR campus and the participants did not need to leave the premises to complete all races.