The Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, the main partner of the Valencia Marathon, has handed over to Save the Children, the race charity, a check worth €21,828 thanks to the efforts of the runners in the Virtual Edition.
In a 2020 in which it has not been possible to hold the fun run, the foundation opted to transform its usual ‘€1 per finisher’ into €1 per kilometre completed by the participants in the 4.0 Valencia Marathon Virtual Edition (up to a maximum of 42 euros per runner), so that the 21,828 kilometres covered by the runners have become 21,828 euros.
The full amount of this donation will be used to strengthen the support provided through the ‘By Your Side’ plan, the emergency intervention with which the NGO has been helping 2000 vulnerable families since the beginning of the pandemic and which is focused on giving economic, educational and psychological support to households with children who are at risk of exclusion and their families.
The kilometres completed in the Virtual Edition plus the voluntary donations from registered runners (€20,868), which was handed over to Save the Children in April during the worst moments of the pandemic, is in addition to a further €1,300 from the ‘By Your Side’ challenge to which the Valencia Marathon also added with voluntary contributions. All of this adds up to a total of 43,996 euros with which the NGO will strengthen its charitable actions this year thanks to the race.
Elena Tejedor, the director of the Trinidad Alfonso Foundation, said “without being able to count on the fun runners due to the pandemic, we decided that our donation to the charity should also be reinvented this year to continue contributing in the same way as in previous years. Hopefully all the kilometres covered by the runners in the virtual race will serve to make life a little easier for many families this year”.
Rodrigo Hernández, the director of Save The Children in the Comunitat Valenciana, says “we are really proud to count on the support of the Valencia Marathon Trinidad Alfonso EDP during the COVID-19 pandemic”. “Thanks to the Foundation’s excellent work, which has re-adapted the marathon to a virtual environment, we can continue to join forces and working with the most vulnerable children, as this crisis, which is not only a health but also a social crisis, is especially affecting children”, said Hernández.
”With the support of the runners and the race we will be able to alleviate the impact that this health and social crisis is now having on the most vulnerable children”, Hernández added.
Canary Banana Challenge also chips in with 1 kilometre = 1 kilo
In addition, Plátano de Canarias and the #CircuitoNacionalRunningPdC have also wanted to participate in the most supportive aspect of the race and have converted the kilometres covered by the participants in the Virtual Edition into 21,828 kilos of bananas they will donate to the Spanish Food Banks Federation (FESBAL).
FESBAL is a non-profit association, which contributes to society by recovering food surpluses and redistributing them through charities. At present, it brings together 55 food banks, at least one in each province around the country.