Water walk for Tanzania Project
Team will have a Spring in their step
Highland Spring staff will carry cases of water from Blackford to Stirling in order to raise money for a Tanzania housing project.
The 19 staff members will each walk 19 miles with 10 litres of water on their backs from their offices in Blackford to the Armed Forces Day celebrations at Kings Park, Stirling on June 30.
The money raised on the water walk will go towards a home building expedition in Moshi, Tanzania in October.
Those involved will support local partners in the construction of homes for vulnerable children and families.
This includes digging foundations, mixing cement and building walls with fellow local builders.
And they are aiming to raise £47,000 by the end of July for the trip, with the current total at around £30,000.
Gemma Hertwig (35) will be taking part and was one of the brains behind the operation. She got the idea from a previous fundraising event in Stirling earlier this year.
She explained: “We were giving away bottles of water and we had to carry a couple of pallets from the ground level to a transit van then down to the centre in Stirling.
“Then we had to manually handle the cases up to the main level of the Thistle centre and I kind of thought ‘well this is actually quite a challenge and it relates to what we will be doing out in Tanzania’.
“So I thought ‘why not do something involving the water which links Highland Spring and Tanzania together?’”
Gemma recently left Highland Spring, but remains very much involved with the project.
And she told how some people are coming up with innovative methods to move the water.
She explained: “Some of the guys are getting prams to push it. We are
Highland Spring staff are getting set to walk from Blackford to Stirling with water in preparation for a trip to Tanzania later this year going to use rucksacks and carry it on our backs.” Urging people to get behind the cause, Gemma added: “Whether they come out and support us or come and put pennies in our collection buckets or whether they go online and sponsors us, any of those things would be fantastic.”
The fundraisers will leave Blackford at 4am and arrive in Stirling at noon to hydrate the locals out enjoying the Armed Forces Day.
Gary Hunter (55) of Highland Spring knows the walk demands a lot and most of the staff have been in training.
He said: “Some of us have done some good preparation.
“For example we went around Loch Leven, which is a 13 mile walk, with no weights, but this weekend we are doing another training walk and will try it with weights.
“We will get there – they are doing the training quite well.”
Donations will go towards the full costs of international flights, incountry daily costs and construction materials for the homes.
Some of the guys are getting prams to push it [the water]