When we started She Runs: Cardiff, supporting women with their running was our number one goal. We wanted all women to have the chance to find the joy of running no matter their speed or experience (we still do!). Having established ourselves in late 2019, not long before the word ‘COVID’ entered our collective vocabulary, what quickly became apparent was that we had an even more important role, of supporting our members mental health during a very difficult time in all of our lives. We are not just a running group, we are a community, we are a collective of women supporting women, a safe space to share our ups and downs.
Over the course of the 2 and a bit years we’ve been going we have lent our support to a few different charities that are important to us. We’ve raised money for the Huggard Centre for homeless people in Cardiff, for Cardiff Women’s Aid, for Kidney Wales and most recently for Wales Air Ambulance, along with many virtual challenges for Mind Charity. All important organisations who have meaning for us and do great work in supporting people who are struggling in various ways and need help.
In 2022 we are again looking close to home for a charity to support and this year we are going big…. bigmoose!
together we can do so much
bigmoose is a charity and non-profit coffee shop where we work to a guideline of our 3 point plan which is working to help with:
*mental health
*homelessness
*prevention of suicide
https://www.bigmoosecoffeecompany.co
If you are a Cardiffian you will probably have heard of bigmoose – either for their lovely coffee shop based in Frederick Street off Queen Street or for their events such as Supertri, a triathlon for disabled children, and their big presence at Cardiff Half each year. Established by inspirational father and daughter duo Jeff & Chloe Smith, their main aim “to leave the world better than they found it”, a motto we can all aspire to!
We had a chance to meet with Jeff & Chloe over zoom to hear about their big plans. Everyone was inspired and excited to be involved.
At She Runs: Cardiff we love the vision of bigmoose, their ethos aligns perfectly with ours. So we have decided to support them as a club throughout 2022 with their latest campaign, ‘Project 1 Million’.
Project 1 Million
Project 1 Million has one simple aim – to raise £1 million by 31/12/2022 to support people with their mental health.
“during lockdown 2020 we were discussing the future of bigmoose and how we wanted to impact the world. during this time we were providing therapy for lots of people and had been told by five people that without our intervention they would have ended their lives.
due to early and impactful intervention 5 people were still alive. 5 families weren’t grieving and the world still had these amazing humans in it. we could not get this thought out of our heads.
unfortunately we were hearing more and more of people struggling and lives being lost. we recognised that people needed help, now more than ever.
as we listened to people’s stories one thing that we were hearing time and time again was that the therapy and intervention that people needed was taking too long and was inaccessible for so many people.
and so, just like that, we had found what direction we wanted to take bigmoose in and project 1 million was born.
throughout 2022 we are aiming to raise £1,000,000 which will be used to provide therapy and early & timely intervention for people. as well as providing training for businesses to better support their teams.
we realise this is a huge goal and we cannot do it alone. we need all the help we can get and we would love to have you on board! our goal is to help people with their mental health, prevent suicide and reduce homelessness.
we will achieve our goal and we will save lives.
in 2020, 5224 people killed themselves in england and wales. this project will help to reduce this number. we hope you will join us and help to leave the world better than we found it.“
https://www.bigmoosecharity.co/project-1-million
If you would like a first hand account of why this is needed and exactly the impact that receiving therapy in a timely manner can have, please read this incredibly brave and honest post from the wonderful Hannah the Runner.
Now £1 million many sound like a lot, but Jeff put it like this to us. “If 100 people can raise £10k then that’s £1 million.” She Runs: Cardiff have pledged to do our best to raise £10,000 for bigmoose by year end and we need your help!
We plan to host a few events throughout the year, not least our summer and Christmas relays where we invite the whole running community to join us for a day of running virtually together all over Wales and beyond – further details to follow. We have a few other ideas too so watch this space! If you have a fundraising idea please do get in touch with us either on Facebook, twitter or instagram or drop us an email at sheruns.cardiff@gmail.com .
Our main fundraising page is here – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SRC-BigMoose please do contribute whatever you can throughout the year. bigmoose will be spending the money raised as they go along – there are people out there right now who need help with their mental health now.
If you would like to establish your own JustGiving page for bigmoose and fundraise for them yourself with a personal challenge (the Cardiff Half perhaps or one of the many other races going ahead this year) please do join our fundraising team at https://www.justgiving.com/team/SRC-BigMoose so that our collective efforts can work together towards our target.
We are super excited to be part of #project1million and can’t wait to get started!
She Runs: Cardiff - Mae Hi'n Rhedeg: Caerdydd 