Small Park, BIG RUN
Supporting womens education and the Khuzaa childrens healing project in Gaza, Palestine
small park BIG RUN is a broad based group of people from Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange, Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund and from the local Heeley and Meersbrook communities in Sheffield.
Sheffield Palestine Cultural Exchange is a group of people committed to ensuring exposure of Palestinian culture in Sheffield and to putting on events where it is possible to make live links with Palestinians. In this event we hope to ensure a run in Gaza and the West Bank at the same time.
The Scholarship Fund is a UK based charity and was set up in 2007 following an International Women’s Day Conference in 2006, where a call was made to support women into education in Gaza. The Fund raises money for scholarships to pay the university fees of Palestinian women into higher education in the Gaza Strip.
Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been active in Sheffield since 1990s. It is made up of a group of people committed to highlighting injustices suffered by Palestinian people. SPSC supports children’s projects in Gaza and has funded better play facilities and a mobile library. More recently we have funded a trauma centre to help recovery from the psychological impact of war.
21 GoodGymers have supported Small Park, BIG RUN with 4 tasks.
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Previous sessions
Small leaflets BIG hills
Monday 15th May 2023
Written by Tom Mutton
On a lovely clear and sunny (if a little windy) Sheffield eve three of us ran from The Showroom Cinema to meet with two more Goodgymers and local legend Jawad who is the mastermind behind the small park BIG RUN event that takes place annually in Meersbrook park to raise funds for a Palestinian charity and a children's charity.
The event is a 24hr run around the hilly park that starts at noon and ends at noon the next day. People can do as much or as little as they wish. More details can be seen on the photos of the leaflet, including the website to sign up and find out more info.
Our task this week was to help raise awareness of the run by leafletting the local streets near by to the park to try and rustle up some local support and entries. We took maps of the area and tried to cover the areas Jawad had us focussing on.
Michelle even brought a wooden spoon to push the leaflets through letter boxes safely, TOP TIP!
After a good 30mins we had covered a decent number of houses and dished out a load of leaflets. From there we all went our separate ways for our dinners, whether it was Tony cooking for us at home or double wrapped mexican burritos! MMMMMMMMMMMM!
In pole position for smallparkBIGRUNFUN
Monday 9th May 2022
Written by Yvonne R
Today, we set out on a run to Meersbrook Park. Tom, Lan, Rachel, Celine and I arrived from the Showroom, duly out of breath after one very long hill just at the end. Seiko and Michelle met us there and, after a quick intro, we were ready to climb the steep hills of Meersbrook to distribute leaflets for smallparkBIGRUN 2022.
SmallparkBIGRUN will take place on 18/19 June 2022. It’s a mass participation event with partner runs taking place in Palestine, with the aim of raising funds for two Palestinian Projects: Children’s healing project in Gaza and the Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund. The event will provide a wonderful day out for Sheffielders, building a link to communities in another part of the world in the spirit of friendship and an opportunity to get some much needed exercise! The organisers are particularly keen to stress that the event aims to include the often marginalised members of the local community.
Bonus Feature: For some nostalgia, look back to our report form the inaugural smallparkBIGRUN in 2017 - Small Park, Big Run, Steep Hill - featuring Tom, Annie and Sam!
Small park BIG RUN - lots of leafleting
Monday 22nd April 2019
Written by Sam Needham
13 GoodGymmers ran to Meersbrook Park to help the guys from Small park BIG RUN distribute flyers in the local area. The 24 hour running event is in mid June and raises funds for education and play projects in Gaza.
It was a warm evening, so just running there was hard work. On arrival, we split into 4 teams and targeted different areas around the park.
After the volunteering bit, we ran a loop of the course, which goes up THAT Meersbrook Park hill (it's very steep even by Sheffield standards, but offers fantastic views over the city from the top).
With some optional sprints on the way back, we then headed back to base for some stretches - and even managed a bit of plogging at the end. The Bank Holiday effect meant there was even more litter about than usual.
GoodGym will be entering a 24 hour team (we hope) for Small Park BIG RUN, as well as volunteering in other roles over the event weekend.
Until next time - Happy Running!
