This week at Burgess parkrun we were joined by Joanna Dudziak, the content creation ambassador for parkrun Poland who handles their blog and newsletter, who was Tail Walking. Having volunteered a whooping 437 times including 35 stints as a Run Director, Joanna is a very experienced and enthusiastic Ambassador in increasing participation and inclusivity adding to the parkrun success story.
Ambassadors support existing events alongside training new event teams in setting up new events.
I was able to get an inside scoop on new events/countries which hopefully will be joining the parkrun stable this autumn;
Switzerland - exciting!
Portugal - VERY exciting!
Lithuania - SUPER exciting!
Uganda - OVER THE MOON EXCITING!
Naturally, I had to say 'Ambassador you are spoiling us' 🙂
Joanna spoke about how important it is to get the right culture at events, to remove any sense of exclusivity. She was pleased to see how Burgess parkrun optimises the inclusivity and celebration they want to foster. This is a great compliment to our core team, all the volunteers and all the participants who come and make Burgess such an uplifting and positive experience.
Bushy parkrun, where this all began, recently held its 7th annual octogenarian event. People over the age of 80 were encouraged to participate to show that age is not a barrier to being physically active. In attendance was our very own Chris Vernon who is a Burgess regular/legend.
I was talking to Burgess parkrun regular Ben aka Raouf Salem who is the director of the Bensalem Foundation. Their mission is ‘...to promote physical fitness, healthy living, and charitable giving…’ with a focus on the North African Arabic communities that populate the Old Kent Road.
We can see that parkrun is perhaps distancing itself from being a ‘sport’. This would mean they won’t need runners to have medical certificates which is what led to events being suspended in France. Being an occasional park walker and tail walker I’m on board with the drive to reduce a focus on competitiveness until 200m of course, then it’s a race to the flag 😀
Next week we’ll be off to Lullingston parkrun where we’re promised a sea of lavender to run through.
Happy running
Wonderful to see so many cultures and ages