Cardiff Half Marathon Collection
Cardiff Half Marathon 2019 took place on Sunday October 6th. Prior to the event we were contacted by Run 4 Wales and asked to support them.
Click here to read more
During the Cardiff half marathon contestants can throw their clothes into a donation bin. These are then donated to a charity. This year we were the charity of choice. The volume of clothes that is donated is dependent on the weather. For example, if it is very cold, contestants tend to keep their over layers on to keep them warm or if it is too hot then contests may only wear what they intend to run in.
Participants are made aware that any clothing they remove is donated to a local charity.
We filled a van with the clothes, which were then sorted by local volunteers from Treorchy library. This was done by filtering items to see what was suitable for resale and what needed to be recycled. This was an interesting task as people had mistaken the donation bins for actual rubbish bins so we had everything from bacon rolls to banana peels amongst sweatshirts and hoodies!
The clothes that were suitable to be sold were then sent to Parc Prison (which has a partnership deal with our partners, Too Good To Waste) where the prisoners washed the clothes – this is part of the prison’s scheme where prisoners can earn money for the work they do, and is part of their rehabilitation process. The prison was perfect for this as they have the capacity to process the volume of clothing we had.
When the clothes were returned to us, the volunteers then helped hang and price the clothing. This was a tremendous help – we would have struggled to do it on our own. This volunteering event was covered by BBC Wales and you can find the link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/50368765 (Welsh website); https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000b7wc (Radio Cymru in Welsh – listen at 45:30).
These items were then put out for sale in Too Good to Waste. The money raised from this pays for sporting activities to be delivered in the Rhondda.
We would be more than happy to support events like these in the future and if you would like us to be at your event please find our contact details below.
Contact: James.Watts-Rees@peopleandwork.org.uk 07392 072115