 the Northwest 10K now because it was a brand new colour t-shirt that launched just last week as we head towards the event this year. It's the 27th version of the event. It's happening on Bank Holiday Monday, Monday the 6th of May and Neil Martin and Nancy McNamee from the committee are with me now in the studio. Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson to give them their full title. So, Alia, thanks for coming in. How are you doing? Thank you very much, John. Yeah, we're doing good. Good to see us both. Yeah. Good to see the new t-shirt there too, Nancy. Nice stock egg, blue, green, whatever you like to call it and the red writing and then at the back we have our five sponsors in the back. Oh, yeah. Donnie Galdili, Brian McCormick and our sport centre complex, Mount Eregal Hotel and the Value Centre. Very fetching. Very fetching, yeah. And we went this year to play in t-shirts rather than, you know, we had Striped Down the Side for a couple of years on the colours or on the sleeves but this year we went for a brand new t-shirt. Of course, if you talk duck egg blue to me, I would go, I can't be great but that's lovely. It looks very well. The red on the front and the black on the back. The red logo on the front makes it very attractive and I can only imagine what it would be like in the morning of the race with 800 people wearing those t-shirts around the town. And everybody that registers, everybody that enters gets one of them, do they? First 1000 entries. First 1000. After that we will have other t-shirts but not the duck egg blue one. So make sure you get in, don't leave it to the last minute. Exactly. We encourage people to go online, the online entry is now opened and they are guaranteed their t-shirt if they do an online entry, especially for people coming into the town, it might not be suitable to come in and enter on the Saturday or the Sunday or to leave it on Mondays but late if they want their t-shirt. Absolutely. Neil, anything different this year, any different starting point or different time? No, nothing. It's still 11 o'clock on the bank holiday Monday, the 6th of May, as you say, rightly the 27th running of the event, no changes. There is a bit of a situation with the new lights that the polls start around about but we have, thanks to the Gardie and all our help, we have got around that situation at the moment and we're happy and we have a proposal and a plan to get everybody safely back. So I'm just guessing here, would that plan be at the start, everybody just goes straight through the roundabout and the traffic is held and then after that it's at one of the junctions? Yes, well as I mean there's a 57 page safety plan associated with this event from all the junctions, all re-junction, we need at least 75 stewards out on the course, along with five supervising stewards, which covers a certain area of every race, of every of the aspect of the course. The Northwest NK at the moment, an athlete or a runner or a walker is never more than a two kilometres from the community centre. So in the event of injury or in the event of trouble, we can get them back to the community centre within a couple of minutes very quickly and safely and securely and as I say, we have not had any incidences in the last 27 run-ins and we don't want one this year and that's the way it is. That's reassuring. Yeah. But you have to have contingency plans in place just in case. Oh yes, there's always contingency plans for the Guardi, for the ambulance service, for fire service, all those things. Roads are closed at certain points but we allow access for the emergency services all the time and thank you to the Guardi and the barracks in Little Kenny, especially Sergeant Union and Welch who has helped us over the years and we always thankfully come out the other side safely and securely. It couldn't be done without their help. Nancy, the benefit and charities this year? The benefit and charities this year, we have three great charities this year. We have the Little Kenny Childcare. We have Carrahouse Family Resource Centre and we also have Kilmachran and Terriman, Trenta, Church Hill and Gareth and First Responders. That's a big area. That's a big area and three great charities, they're working very hard out there. They're also trying to get, do other add-on events and they have been very successful to date as well. They've done fashion shows. They've done... There was a big fashion show there. There was. There was indeed a great success Carrahouse led out on but the other two charities were with them as well and we had a lot of, we had Claretta, the superintendent, we had the manager of the Fun Harps, they had a lot of celebrities out there. Modeling. Modeling for them and various different fashion. Because it's about, it's thanks to events like that that raises the money well in advance and totally aside from the registrations, it's the charities involved and organising, you know, whatever it is, pub quiz or fashion show or collections. In fact, there's a couple coming up shortly. There isn't. There's a night of the raisins coming up shortly and the Gortley... The Swallain. The Swallain. The Swallain. The Swallain. The Swallain. Yeah and there was a... That's Saturday the 27th. That's 27th. That's correct, yeah. There was a charity, football match last Friday, there was a table quiz in the arena seven last Thursday. There's a lot of stuff happening over the next couple. The Saturday there's going to be a collection. There's also going to be a collection at Simpsons, at Selling Lines at Simpsons and also at Don Stores, the old Don Stores as well. Great prizes are for the draw as well, the wide selection TV, wide selection of prizes for the draws as well. And we would like also to thank everybody that's supporting all the charities. We'd like to encourage as many people as possible as well to come out, not only to run but to walk on the day of the race. People think that it's a 10K, it's a race. We need to be training all the rest. That isn't what the 10K ethos is at all. It's about families getting out there, enjoying the day, having the fun. It's at 11 o'clock in the morning, you can be back, have your goodies in the carapac in the back. Going on Dusted by lunchtime. Very much so and go out there and have a lovely family lunch for the evening. Yeah. Very much so. But a lot of people do, you see a lot of people walking, getting people pushing buggies and stuff. It is a big community and family event. It's like over the past 26 run-ins of the Northwell, we had one of them that was a during lockdown, it was a virtual walk or race. But it's always the families and the community that generate the income. I mean, at the end of the day, athletics is a sport and athletes will run the race. But there's not that many hard and fast, basic runners in the county that would generate a thousand people at the start of a race. In other words, the race element is only a portion of what we do. The race element is a vehicle for the charities to generate income and use our name and use their own name to create awareness of their own charities as well as everything else. And like over the last 26 years, we've raised not we personally, Nancy and myself, but in terms of the North West End Committee, 932,000 euros for 38 charities. You're heading towards the million mark. We're heading towards the million this year, would you? Well, we don't know. We're working hard. The committee or the charities did say at one stage they were going to push it out there. But it's going to happen. It's a lot of money. If you take it an average 932,000 euros over 26 years is about 35,000 per annum. But I mean, there was years it was bigger and there was years it was less. But that's not the way it, you know, that can happen. The charities are working very, very well and they're working very, very hard and they deserve all their support. The local communities can give them because this is their fundraiser for 2024. All the money they collect and we divided equally among them with whatever money we have left over from our risks and our expenses are taken out of it. Everything else is put into the kitty and it's divided equally among the three charities. So it works best then when three charities pull together and get behind it and, you know, realize that this is an opportunity. Very much so, yeah. And I have to say the three charities this year are working just very much hand in hand. The three of them are one supporting, one might put out that they're having the tea. We'll say, for example, in weaving last week, but the other two charities are out supporting them. Likewise, with the fashion show and every event that has gone to date as well. Brilliant. And Neil, there's a special guest to start it. Yes, just as well, normally we do invite the Donegal person of the year to be the official starter of the Northwest NK. It hasn't always happened in different times. They were just not available. But we are delighted that we have Maya Brennan come in this year. We once after she was inaugurated as the Donegal person of the year, we made contact and she came back, responded very quickly to us and is delighted to be coming along. She says she can't run it herself, but she will be there at the start and she will do the official start for us. So we're delighted to have the Donegal person of the year, Maya Brennan, with us. Are you doing it Nancy? I know you do a lot of running. I do a lot of running, but unfortunately since 2011 I haven't done the 10K because we're too busy on the morning. She's not allowed. You just keep her in check. Then the other events she can do. Can I just say as well that as you were talking there about the race element, there is also 500 euros up for the first female and male that can break the records. Currently the record is no break, Berkeley done it in 1998, 29, 14, and Maria McKimbridge has the female one in 2005, which is 32, 34, so there's 500 euro if a man can break the time or the woman can break their time as well. It's just an element for athletes coming into the town and to encourage the good athletes as well to come into the town as well for the race. I remember doing it on a couple of occasions, just when you get to the end, I was like, I'm used to maybe doing the odd 5K, but 10K is just obviously a bit more, and you're absolutely whacked. The tank is absolutely empty because there's such a crowd doing it and you're always looking to catch up with somebody in front and there's always an onus and there used to be the Helen Gortley. You think that's taken out now? Yeah, that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that used to be, that was really tough. So come the end, come the, and you just think that you're just never going to get to the community center, but you do. You always do, you always do. There's a competitive streak in everyone, even if they're only pushing a buggy, as you said earlier. Everybody goes out there, to challenge themselves just to get round to 10K. And by so doing, and have to have a sponsorship card or whatever and gather up a few pounds for the charities, it's all the better. Even the money they pay for their entry fee, while we give out a t-shirt for that as well, there's still some left over to go to the charity. So by just coming along and entering, get there. Now there is always a risk that if it's, what will they say, a bad morning and storm and rain and whatnot, that families may not get out there and do it. That's fair enough. But the argument is, get your entry in anyway. At least you have helped the charity, whether you'd come along on the day to do the event or not. And hopefully you will. And hopefully you will, absolutely. And there's a t-shirt as Nancy is showing you there for everybody in the audience, up to 1,000 people. Even if you don't make it, you're still gonna get the, on the day, you're still gonna get the t-shirt. So the message loud and clear, go online to register. Can you go along physically and register at the stage? Yes, not yet, not at the stage. On Saturday, the fourth and Sunday, So the weekend just before? Yeah, from three o'clock to six o'clock at the community centre, we'll be there. And on Monday morning, we will also take entries, but we don't want everybody there at that stage. And I mean, the website is www.northwesttank.com. And you get in there and you get your link to the entry, the online entry link. And you also can get it on our Facebook page as well and all our social media outlets. So there's a link there or not all the time. It's www.njukunjuco.net. Get the link. But you get the link right away once you get into your website. It's on the posters. Any of the social media. It's on the posters that you see as well. Or indeed, if the sponsorship cards, if you have one of them. But it's about getting out there, help on the community, help on these three charities that are very, very, as I say, worthy of the cause and worthy to be involved. We interviewed nine charities this year. We picked these three. And rightly so, and we could have picked any one of the nine. But that's the way life is. We can't take nine because there'll be no package in it, as they say. But three is about the max we can accommodate. And they are working hard. We laugh ourselves about, we're all getting off this committee when we make a million. But it's not that we will certainly not be doing that. But we talk away about making the million and making the million. It'll be close this year. It may not make it, but it'll be close. But within the next two years, we certainly will be hitting one million euros of charity, of money that has been distributed locally. Everything, we don't take anyone outside of the county in terms of charities. We just work with what we get from within the local area. And that's the way we work. That's our ethos. All right, well, the countdown is on. It's a bank holding Monday, Monday the 6th of May. It's always a fantastic event, always really well supported and hundreds of runners and walkers and strollers and anything else that just get around it in any old way. Sorry, just before we finish, John, can I just say thank you again to the local community and to Letter Kenny, the people of Letter Kenny as well. And while we were out there running a race on Monday morning, the 6th of May, we would like them just to again show their patience and respect for the people that are out there walking to raise money for local charities within Letter Kenny, Kilmlecran and Tremont, Trenta and that as well. We do know that it may inconvenience some people, but they're alternative routes as well. But we would thank them very sincerely for their cooperation with that. And maybe come out and cheer on. Yes, very much so. Park open, get out. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, thanks guys. And thank you again for our sponsors. Not at all. All right, thank you very much, John. Get with the best. 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