The 8 Mile Charity Club raises funds for various charities and is headed by Mervyn Bremner, Richard Stretch and Stan Kozlowski. Stan started the idea of swimming all 8 miles to raise funds for the Wildlands Conservation Trust in 2001.
Since then it has grown, the charities currently enjoying the support of the 8 Mile club are ACT Save the Rhino, Assist Change in Action, the Cancer Association, CHOC, Gateway Christian School, the iThemba Lethu Aids Orphans Home, KZN Cystic Fibrosis, the KZN Society for the Blind, the KZN Society for the Deaf, Little Angels, Little Eden, Pam & Colin’s Foster Home, Pevensey Place for Cerebal Palsey, the SA Guide Dogs Association, the SPCA, Thandanani Children’s Foundation, Village Safe Haven Children’s Home, and the Wildlands Conservation Trust.
At a handover function at Pietermaritzburg’s lakeside, more than a million rand was handed over to the various charities.
Ladysmith’s own Cassidy Muller was recognized as one youngest and the top fundraiser for ‘Save the Rhino’ for the 2014 – 8 Mile Charity Club raising a staggering R55 364.80 of the R197 000 handed over to the project.
So what is the 8 Mile Charity Club?
The club requires the swimmers to complete all eight races on the Midmar Mile programme, and in the process raise funds for the various charitable organisations that are identified by the club each year.
The idea was born in 2001 when Stan Kozlowski decided to try and swim all eight miles to raise funds for the Conservation Trust. Kozlowksi formalised the club with Mervyn Bremner in 2004, who currently leads the list of swimmers who has completed the most Miles with 102 swims.
There are currently 50 swimmers in the 8 Mile club, and each is expected to raise at least R10 000 for the various charities each year. Each pays an entry fee that covers their entries into all the miles, as well as food, apparel and the boat trips to take them back to the start of each race.
Cassidy Muller seen here with Wayne Riddin, organiser of the Midmar Mile.