Charity Run collects 24 thousand euros for scholarships

Runners raised 24,000 euros at this year’s Erasmus Charity Run. The money was brought in by 306 students, staff and alumni who ran the quarter marathon last Sunday, and will go towards scholarships for master’s students.

The Erasmus Charity Run is organised yearly by project manager Laurens Wielaard and alumni relations coordinator Kim Elferink. Students, alumni and staff members from the university took part in the 10 kilometres of the Rotterdam Marathon last Sunday. Their aim? To collect scholarship funds for prospective and in need master’s students.

The day started at 7 in the morning for the organisers. But quickly the first runners arrived ‘to collect T-shirts, have a coffee, and have a chat’, said Wielaard, before they started their quarter marathon.

Records

This year was a record breaking for the Erasmus Charity Run, with 24,006 euros raised by 306 participants and 860 donors. According to Wielaard, this is ‘nearly enough’ to offer full scholarships to two master’s students next year.

Past and current students joined to raise money for the scholarships. Alumni from the Executive MBA at RSM participated with seven runners and raised 4,453 euros. Thirty students from faculty association EFR raised 1,765 euros.

“The actual amount that we wanted to reach was 25,000 euros”, said Elferink. Although it wasn’t achieved this year, she is ambitious, aiming for 28,000 euros next year, and more than 350 participants.

Running songs

“We have a Spotify playlist and Strava club where people can share their success”, mentioned Elferink. Participants can share running songs and cheer each other’s running milestone. The idea is that the runners are ‘connected and committed’ not just to the marathon, but to a cause.

This strategy appears to have worked. For a lot of participants, this wasn’t the first charity run, Wielaard and Elferink noticed. But they were joined by new participants as well: “Every year we get more people, and people will stay for next year”, said Wielaard.

Why are people less likely to leave, and more people continue to join? Wielaard believes that ‘people are happy with it’, and enjoy the experience, making it more likely for them to return. Elferink thinks that the runners are ‘amazed by the vibrant atmosphere of the community’.