Following on from the recent articles about Clubmark and Jo’s post on Facebook, we thought you would like to learn a bit more about what has been going on behind the scenes to attain this status.
As part of the Clubmark application, the club needed to devise an Outreach programme. It was decided that the goal would be to lead a Running Club for Visually Impaired students at New College Worcester.
After an inordinate amount of hard work, organisation and patience, a group of 6 volunteers led their first 
session on Wednesday 8th June and successfully, over the following 5 weeks of consecutive Wednesdays, completed a 5 km run with each and every one of their students. Delighted with their success and as a reward for all their hard work, the students were presented with a medal to commend them for their achievement.
Enjoyment was definitely the overriding theme and, even though some of the students started with no running goals other than it was something to do on a Wednesday evening, by the end of session two, the group was buzzing with talk of parkrun and the end goal of a 5km distance became a distinct reality as the course progressed.
The BPJ volunteers loved working with their trainees and found them to be so inspirational.
Sarah Broadbent “Love every minute of this group. Feel very proud of the students.”
Wendy Cole “It’s been the most amazing experience and indeed very, very humbling.”
Kim Sparkes “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world, thank you for a fab experience.”
The school has now broken up for their summer break until September. The plan is to work towards building the group and getting more of our volunteers involved as time goes on.
For information on how to become a part of this amazing programme please contact Jo Evans, the Clubmark co-ordinator using the Contact page.
Jo Evans Nick Eacock, Wendy Cole, Sarah Fernihough, Sarah Broadbent and Kim Sparkes.
N.B. All photographs have been used with kind permission from New College, Worcester
