Massive blow to charities as Hope & Dream 10 is postponed until October
THIS year’s Hope & Dream 10 road run in Enniscorthy has been postponed until October.
The decision to reschedule the event was made by the organising committee last week in line with Government and health authority guidelines with regard to public gatherings, as efforts continue to stem the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19.
While the health and safety of the general public is of paramount importance to the event organisers the Hope & Dream 10 is the principal fundraising event for the Hope Centre and Wexford Hospice and its postponement will put added pressure on the resources of both services throughout the summer.
Michael Jordan, the race director, spoke to this newspaper about the decision and said that although it was inevitable, given the current situation, it was one not taken lightly by the committee members.
‘It was a very difficult decision to make and we already had 1,500 people registered to participate,’ he said.
‘However, some of the people who would take part, as well as the general public, would possibly be at risk and obviously the health and safety of everyone has to come first,’ he added.
‘We knew once we had made the decision it was the right thing to do.’
However, rather than cancel the event the committee chose to reschedule it and the new provisional date is October 4.
‘That is the new provisional date, albeit subject to risk assessment and medical advice,’ said Mr Jordan.
‘That’s six months away and we would hope that the situation with regard to the coronavirus will have resolved itself by then but who knows how things will develop,’ he added.
‘We are certainly hopeful that the event will take place on that day all things working in our favour.’
Mr Jordan went on to comment: ‘We have secured that date and we are going to be working towards that.’
The committee is also mindful of the fact that fundraising events in support of the race have already taken place and Mr Jordan said: ‘People have already collected money and we would ask them to hold onto it. We have a specific system in place for collecting money and the insurance et and cannot do it on a piece-meal basis and we will collect all of the money raised like we normally do in line with the rescheduled date.’
Last year’s Hope & Dream 10 event raised €180,190 for the centre and Mr Jordan confirmed that both the centre and Wexford Hospice Homecare will be ‘massively hit’ as a result of this year’s postponement.
‘They are going to be massively hit by this,’ he said.
‘The Hope Centre relies on 80 per cent fundraising and those events are not now going to be able to happen,’ he added.
‘However, people’s health and safety have to come first.’
While the current restrictions will have an impact on provision of services in terms of some logistics Mr Jordan pointed out that clients of the Hope Centre will still be able to access its services.
‘If someone contacts the centre by phone they will be looked after and we will be proceeding as best we can,’ he said.