Saffery Rotary Walk beats entry record

A small group of Rotary Club, Rotary Guernesiais and Saffery Champness volunteers were busy there packing envelopes to be sent out to some of this year’s participants.

Rotary vice chairman Nigel Dorey said that so far 550 people had registered for the event, with some of those in 23 relay teams, which was the largest number ever received.

He said there were usually three scheduled get-togethers to prepare the entry packs, with additional ones held if there was a spate of last-minute entries.

Each padded envelope contained a booklet with information about the walk, a letter explaining health and safety provision, a parking sticker for those who wish to leave their cars in pier car parks, a bright orange branded T-shirt and an ID pass.

Sir Ian was presented with his T-shirt during his visit, as well as being given one for his son, Andrew, who will accompany him on the walk.

However, because he is not in the island on the day of the walk, 15 June, Sir Ian and his son will be tackling it ahead of time.

He said he had not yet finalised the date, but it would probably be on the late May Bank Holiday or the following day. ‘We’ll check the weather beforehand,’ he said.

This will be the third time he has undertaken the walk, and his intention is to do it every year that he is in office.

‘It’s a really excellent event for bringing the community together,’ said Sir Ian, ‘and for raising substantial sums of money for a large range of good causes.’

Lady Corder accompanied him on the first walk, but said she did not plan on doing it again.

However, she and Milo, their dog, would be joining on one of the legs early on.

Saffery first sponsored the walk five years ago and operations manager Chris Russell said that from a corporate social responsibility point of view, it was the company’s biggest event.

As well as sponsorship, a lot of Saffery staff would be taking part in relay teams and as individuals.