The New Millennial Rotary Club Tzaneen is where like-minded young professionals and community leaders come together to exchange ideas, take action and uplift the community.

Their marathon will put Tzaneen on the map once again.

The inaugural Magoeba Plunge Marathon takes place on 23 November.

The start of the marathon will be in Haenertsburg and finish at the Showgrounds in Tzaneen.

The vision of the Magoeba Plunge is to establish a sustainable community focused running event, encouraging athletes of all levels to lead healthy lifestyles and further their personal fitness through running.

This year, the focus is on community involvement and is a two-pronged approach. Rural schools who have very little exposure to maths, science and English.

This is managed by an NPO – Greater Tzaneen Science Centre.

Read: Tzaneen: Dit is weer Avofees tyd

Teaching robotics to children through play.

Children are given a project such as the challenges astronauts face while in space and they choose one, and solve it using robotics!

The second arm of the fundraising thrust is a mobile clinic to alleviate the enormous strain on our impoverished rural and local communities where spay/neutering and basic veterinary care of pets is beyond their financial means as well as an education centre for Letaba SPCA who services an area of 250sq km.

An education centre which will focus on both children and adults who in these impoverished communities are responsible for the care and protection of farm animals as well as domestic.

Proactive training which will be offered to enable them to prevent cruelty, uplift the lives of both carer and end suffering of thousands of animals.

Rotary Haenertsburg have generously donated two enormous containers which will be converted into a clinic and an education centre.

“Our goal is R1,8m to include the cost of conversion and equipping the clinic with the essentials and opening the education centre,” said Tracey van den Dool, secretary of the club.

The Magoeba Plunge is a Comrades Qualifier of 42.2km, along with a 15km and a 5km fun walk, with an officially timed course. The marathon will gain momentum with entries increasing exponentially year on year as runners enjoy the downhill marathon which will ensure good qualifying times for their next Comrades. They are anticipating approximately 500 entries for our inaugural marathon.

There is no other such marathon available in Limpopo and we have the blessing of Limpopo Athletics. On average each runner is accompanied by 2 or 3 friends or family members, so we will be catering for approximately 1500 – 2000 people on the day. Tzaneen Marathon Club are the hosts for licencing.

A carnival-like atmosphere with stalls, food, refreshment, entertainment and a children’s entertainment area will be at the finish to prevent boredom from setting in whilst family and friends eagerly await the arrival of their runner.

For more information contact Tracey on 083-968- 0902