Runners, police and community come together to support victims of violence
The cookies will be handed out during December
Two things that Krugersdorpers know how to do well are running, and charity.
Every day after work, the streets are filled with runners, and you’ll be hard pressed to choose between the many charitable causes running in town each week. Members of the Run Zone West Rand and, in a somewhat unlikely alliance, a few police departments came together to combine these two passions into one event.
Each year, Captain Paula Terblanche from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) police unit collects a sizable stack of cookies for the Cookie Tin Project.
“This year was challenging with Covid-19. Families fell apart and our cases increased,” said Paula with a heavy heart.
“With this project we would like to bring some sunshine to the victims we dealt with during 2020.”
This year Paula approached her running club to help collect the many cookies they needed and the obvious choice was to host a late afternoon time trial run on Tuesday, 17 November where the entry fee was, obviously, a box or two or more of cookies. The running crowd didn’t disappoint and about 120 people showed up, each with their entry fee. Though not all the cookies have been sorted and packed into tins yet, they estimated that more than 100 boxes of varying sizes were collected.
“The cookies will be handed out during December,” explained Paula.
“Members of the Krugersdorp FCS unit, as well as members of the community will be going to the victims in person and hand it over. It will be in the form of a roadshow.”
Alongside this project, Paula and her team are also running the Christmas Shoe Box project where the community can donate empty decorated shoe boxes filled with school stationery.
Warren Mackenzie, Run Zone West Rand club manager thanked Paula and the other police officers present during the run, saying, “We even had our own escort through the streets and, for the first time ever, we had the right of way and cars stopped for us!”
Recently crowned Miss Gauteng, Savana Croucamp joined in on the festivities, thanking the community and chatting with the runners before and after the time trial. The FCS’ mascot Bobby entertained the crowd with a dance meant to teach children about their rights in abusive situations.
Watch here:
