FIRST EVER CROSS-SOLENT TRIATHLON RAISES OVER £35K FOR CHARITY
Room to Reward (www.roomtoreward.org) Harbour Hotels employees and friends complete gruelling cycle, swim and run for Room to Reward and Aspire.
On the 22nd September, a team of employees – including Chairman Nicolas Roach - and friends of Harbour Hotels took on and conquered the first ever Solent Triathlon for Room to Reward and Aspire. Despite some of the worst conditions the swim has ever been done in, everyone made it from Stokes Bay across the Solent to the Isle of Wight and helped raise more than £35,000 for the two charities.
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The idea for the unique event came from Simon Maguire, General Manager of the Southampton Harbour Hotel and comprised an 18-mile cycle from the hotel to the crossing point at Stokes Bay, a 2.5-3-mile swim across the Solent to Ryde and a 7.5-mile to Cowes to finish.
Conditions were calm, if a little grey and wet, when the team set off on Saturday morning. However, as the swim leg progressed, the mist closed in, the rains came down and the wind picked up.
Joe Langtree, Room to Reward’s Marketing Manager and one of the participants, said:
“It was an amazing team effort to get across. The conditions couldn’t have been much tougher and it took everyone about an hour longer than normal, but we made it. The safety boats and support kayakers did an unbelievable job in keeping us in the water and getting us all across as on more than once occasion it looked like the swim would have to be abandoned.
It was an incredible day and the amount of money raised is just amazing.”
Room to Reward partners with hotels to give a short break to Hidden Heroes from the charity sector. The unique charity partners with hotels across the U.K who donate their anticipated unsold rooms to the scheme. Registered charities are then invited to nominate their exception volunteers and staff for a well-earned break.
Over 210 hotels have signed up to the initiative, donating in excess of £135,000 worth of breaks to more than 300 Hidden Heroes.
“The money raised through this mad venture will enable us to spread Room to Reward’s reach around the country,’ said Mr. Langtree. “It will also be used to cover travel costs or other additional extras to ensure everyone nominated to us gets the same opportunity to enjoy a break that their commitment to making a difference to others deserves.”
Aspire is a national charity that provides practical help to people who have been paralysed by Spinal Cord Injury, supporting them from injury to independence.
Through its projects and programmes, Aspire offers practical support to the 40,000 people living with a spinal cord injury in the UK. This support allows people with spinal injury to lead fulfilled and independent lives in their homes, with their families, in their workplace and in leisure time.
Read more about the Room to Reward/Aspire Solent Triathlon and see pictures and videos from the event here: https://www.roomtoreward.org/r2r-aspire-solent-triathlon/
Read more about the work of Aspire here: https://www.aspire.org.uk/
Read more about how Room to Reward helps say ‘thank you’ to the Hidden Heroes of the charity sector here: www.roomtoreward.org.
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