By William Coleman
With Christmas just 5 weeks away we are all starting to gear up for all the festive activities and fun. Salop leisure are fully embracing the Christmas cheer and the spirit of giving. Very shortly hundreds of Santas will be journeying from the North Pole to Shrewsbury all in the name of charity. They will be raising funds for the Severn Hospice with a charity fun run.
The Salop Santa Dash on Sunday December 3rd is going to a full on fun event for the whole family. The Dash had two options for the daring Santas who are taking part. They can run one or two laps of a 2.5 kilometre course around Salop Leisure and the adjoining Love2Stay glamping and touring resort, which we actually covered in a previous article Love2Stay £5.5M site success.
There is a £10 entry fee which includes a Santa suit and all they money raised will be donated to Severn Hospice. There is a limit of 500 entry spots for the run and is on a first come first served basis. For more details please visit www.salopsantarun.co.uk.
The Salop Santa dash comes from the creative mind of Salop Leisure’s marketing manager Ed Glover who is being helped by Simon Macdonald from Love Fitness at Salop Leisure who organised the most successful Mercedes Benz Shewsbury 10km run and UK Mud Run. On top of that the event is also be supported by Rybrook MINI Shrewsbury.
“It’s a huge honour to host the first event of this kind at Salop Leisure,” said Ed. “We enjoy coming up with new ways of raising money for local charities and hope everyone gets behind this event to help us raise a significant sum for Severn Hospice.”
Simon added: “We think it will be a great family event in the lead up to Christmas and our advice is to book your places early, as there is already huge interest from people wishing to take part.
“Run, jog or walk with hundreds of other wannabe Santas and enjoy a well-earned mulled wine or hot chocolate at the end!”
For those fitness lovers or for those who want to preparing physically for the winter months can visit Love Fitness at Salop Leisure. They will be welcoming members of the public to visit their boutique fitness studio and purpose built bootcamp training facility where you can run an assault course in the run up to Christmas, burn some pounds off before we put a load on after eating turkey and Quality Street by the ton.
Emma Robinson, marketing co-ordinator for Rybrook MINI Shrewsbury, said: “We are very pleased to be supporting the Salop Santa Dash to raise funds for such a fantastic local cause.”
Charity work is a very difficult thing. A lot of companies rely massively on the contributions of the public. Lucy Russ, Severn Hospice’s manager, explained that the charity needs to raise £7 million a year which equals £24,000 a day to provide services to more than 2,000 people across Shropshire and Mid Wales annually.
“We support local people and their families when they need it most, either in the hospice or in their home,” said Lucy. “Severn Hospice is delighted to be the chosen charity for the Salop Santa Dash and we are looking forward to getting people involved in celebrating Christmas whilst at the same time raising funds.”
The Salop Santa Dash is just one of many action packed Christmas events planned by Salop Leisure and Love2Stay to make Christmas 2017 one for the books. Other highlights will be a 16×9 meter ice rink for the skaters among us and there is the Shropshire Handmade and Vintage Christmas Fair with a special Santa’s Grotto.
The gift fair will kick off the festive celebrations on November 25-26 where there will be up to 60 stalls selling many different types of handmade and unique craft and giftware for Christmas. The 2016 festivities at Salop had an attendance of around 10,000 people.
The Grotto will be open every weekend leading up until Christmas on selected evenings so make sure the kids are on their best behaviour and have their Christmas list ready. You can evening sit down and have a nice cup of tea with Santa on selected dates between 3-6pm on selected dates.
The new ice rink will be located at Love2Stay and will be open to the public who will park at Salop Leisure and be transported on a festive land train to and from the resort. Schools will be invited to send groups of children to enjoy the ice skating and other facilities.
For full details of the Salop Leisure’s Christmas events programme, visit www.salopchristmas.co.uk.
