May L' Arche Be With You

MAY L'Arche BE With You

L’Arche Belfast May Fitness Challenge

All of us in L’Arche Belfast have been living community in a very different way the past two months.  Some core members are staying with their families, and we keep in touch with them through phone calls, WhatsApp messages, and Zoom.  The rest of the core members are all staying at home, and instead of running down the Ormeau Road to say hello, we say hello to each other in Zoom meetings.  Our art sessions are happening on WhatsApp now, and we are seeing photos of all of the amazing work our artists have been doing.  Our garden and kitchen participants have all been stuck at home, not able to come and help us with the cooking or the Springtime planting, but we are staying in touch in other ways.

Probably the strangest thing of all for me, though, as the Community Leader, is that we have not had any big community gatherings for so long!  No birthday parties, no Easter celebration, no May Fair.  Although it’s fun to meet each other on Zoom, it’s just not quite the same as being all together in person.

Some of us have been thinking of how we could do a type of event that the whole community, no matter where they are, can participate in.  An event that would bring us all together, help us all to get active and keep fit, and also bring in a bit of fundraising that will help cover the costs of our work projects.  All three of our projects – Kitchen, Garden, and Art – rely on income from the May Fair to help support their running costs, and we will be missing that income this year. 

Our Fair had been scheduled for the 23rd of May this year.  Normally at this time, the art project would be producing lovely hand crafted items to sell, the gardeners would be frantically potting up hanging baskets and window boxes, and the kitchen crew would be preparing for the May Fair BBQ.  Instead of all that, this year could everyone in the community agree to Get Active and fundraise for L’Arche Belfast?

The Challenge:

Starting on 18th May, the week of the Fair, could each person in the community do one session of exercise every day for the next two weeks (finishing on Monday 1st June), and find a few people to sponsor your hard work?  Because we have a wide range of abilities and interests in L’Arche, the exercise session can be whatever you enjoy – walking, running, yoga, weight lifting, kicking a football around – and you don’t have to do the same thing every day, as long as you are doing SOMETHING!  We are suggesting that you try to exercise for an hour a day, but depending on your ability the sessions can be shorter (or longer!) if you want.  We want everyone to ENJOY doing this, and at the same time to challenge themselves a bit to maybe do something they haven’t done before.

The Logistics:

We will provide you with an exercise log where you can record your activity every day, and a sponsorship form where you can record who is sponsoring you.

So Please Participate and raise some  money for L'Arche Belfast.