Annual 10km Charity Walk

On Sunday 18th July 2010, the Lotus Trust hosted a charity walk in Fryent Country Park, Kingsbury in order to raise money for three great causes, namely:

Ahimsa (slaughter-free) milk campaign
Great Ormond’s Street Hospital (GOSH)
Bhaktivedanta Manor Primary School Minibus

Supporting GOSH in any way is a blessing in itself because the donations received through this environmental project will help GOSH in research and development, state-of-the-art equipment, and better support for patients and families.

The main aim of the charity walk was to raise money for, and awareness about, the Ahimsa milk campaign. Ahimsa is Sanskrit for slaughter-free, and in this case the campaign aims to provide a premium quality of milk where the cows are not slaughtered after they stop being able to produce milk. Instead, they are given an opportunity to die naturally and with dignity.

It was a great day out with approximately 200 adults and children participating, beautiful weather, a generous supply of free refreshments provided by our sponsors, and of course a very enthusiastic team of volunteers some of whom were brave enough to do the walk in a cow-suit!

Moreover, we were lucky to have the presence of three dignitaries who were kind enough to take some time out of their busy lives and participate in the walk.

Bob Blackman (Conservative MP for Harrow East, Cllr Harshadbhai Patel (Conservative Leader: Brent Council), and Cllr Asad Omar (Mayor of Harrow) all gave short speeches, performed a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and started the walk with the Ahimsa campaign spokesperson, Sita Rama das (who, by the way, looked simply adorable in his cow-suit!).

The event raised a total of £9,084 - the proceeds have been equally distributed between the three causes.

A big thank you goes to all those who made a donation, to our sponsors for the delicious refreshments, and last but definitely not least, to all the volunteers who have worked so hard in the preparation of the event as well as on the day itself and ensured everything ran smoothly.