Help bring Junior parkrun to Chester
Club member Mark Gallagher is working on setting up a 2km Junior parkrun at the Countess of Chester Country park every Sunday morning (9am start) from April for 4-14 year olds.
For the junior event to go ahead, he is looking at putting together a core team of 10-12 people. A core team member would be at the junior parkrun consistently in the first couple of months, before committing to be there on a rota basis when available and would have to complete a safeguarding course online and DBS check prior to becoming a member of the core team.
He has already secured an out and back route at the Countess of Chester Country park and received approval that this is suitable.
A lot of you will be familiar with how the Saturday morning version of parkrun works and junior parkrun works in a very similar way, except that he needs more marshals, so that runners are in a continuous line of sight.
There are many roles available as a member of the core team at a junior parkrun; Run Director, Course Set up and breakdown, Funnel Managers, Time Keeping, Barcode Scanning and Marshalling. To find out what these roles involve, please take a look at the following link https://support.parkrun.com/hc/en-us/articles/200566523-What-do-the-volunteers-do-
Whilst the response to set one up has been great and he has a lot of support and encouragement, the part he is most struggling with is getting together a core team of volunteers.
He has taken his son to junior parkruns to Neston, Wrexham and Wirral and has found them to be incredibly positive and rewarding experience for both the children and adults who take partβ¦he hopes we can create this same atmosphere in our little corner of Chester too!
Parents who attend with children that are confident enough to run by themselves, can help out by marshalling, (your children can be kept safely around the finish line while you marshal. Or if you prefer, you can be offered roles around the finish area, like barcode scanning, and funnel management and of course the tail walker role, which you can complete with your child.
Please get in touch if this would be something that interests you, or if you have any further questions. You can do this by either emailing [email protected] or ringing/texting on 07786520183.
