At the end of a glorious day in March, the snowy days of last November were a distant memory when Santa returned to do 9 more special deliveries. 

The lucky recipients were local & national charities receiving donations to the wonderful value of £18,000. 

Most of these funds were raised during the very successful Great Santa Fun Run which was supported by no less than 780 runners who braved temperatures of minus 9 degrees (it warmed up to about zero during the day!!) 

Despite the temperature, the runners which included one ‘runner’ who completed the 4 mile course on a 12 inch uni-cycle, gallantly braved the weather and raised over £15,000 – the balance was recovered by additional Gift Aid contributions. 

The beneficiaries of these funds were: 

• Lutterworth College (for sports equipment)
• Help for Heroes (for the rehabilitation of our service men & women who are wounded)
• Lutterworth Enterprise Centre which seeks to provide practical skills to students away from the normal school environment
• Lutterworth Carers
• Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance
• Lutterworth Age Concern
• LOROS – (Leicestershire and Rutland Organisation for the Relief of Suffering) - a local charity providing care & support within Leicestershire and Rutland
• The Leicestershire & Rutland Hospice
• The Lutterworth Mayor’s Charities including The Salvation Army and various Lutterworth projects
• Rainbows – The East Midlands Children’s Hospice for children with life – limiting illnesses.
• Leire Church 

In conjunction with the Santa Fun Run, the members of the Leire Church had organised a Cyclethon during the Christmas holiday period, where dressed in seasonal Santa suits previously used for the Fun Run, they raised a fantastic sum of £2000 (included in previous total). This was raised as they cycled around local villages. 

Thanks were expressed to all concerned by Santa aka Rotarian Alwyn ‘Oggie’ Odgen who actually took part in the Fun Run himself whist cruising in the Middle East. Ladies of the Lutterworth & Lutterworth Wycliffe Inner Wheel Clubs were thanked as they provided much needed and much appreciated teas, coffees and cakes. 

The Great Lutterworth Santa Fun Run is held annually at the end of November and great interest is being shown for this year’s event. It is hoped we will reach the magic number of 1000 runners, walkers and uni-cyclists. 

For further details of the 2011 event please visit the http://www.santafunrun.org.uk/

 Photographs of the event can be found on the Lutterworth Wycliffe website http://www.wyclifferotary.org.uk/santa.html

 Thanks to Peter Osborn for the report