Marathon of Marathons 2010 - PEI Media

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Letter from John Campbell In the footsteps of Pheidippides | Athens, 31 October 2010 2 In the footsteps of Pheidippides THE INSPIRATION BEGAN IN 490BC, when the Athenian army defeated the Persians by the Bay of Marathon and the herald Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to bring news of victory. In the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the legend of Pheidippides was honoured by a 24.85 mile (40,000 metres) run from the Marathon Bridge to the Olympic Stadium in Athens. In 1986, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the first modern Olympiad, I suggested to eight novice marathoner friends that they should join me to run that year’s Athens marathon. Our team took on the challenge of this tough original marathon course, raising £25,000 for charity. We then returned in 1996 for the Centenary Athens Marathon. This time, we found 100 friends who ran together to raise money for children’s charities in each of the five continents symbolised by the five Olympic rings. We raised over £400,000. And so it was that in 2009, with all this history in mind, we came up with the idea for our most ambitious project yet: the Marathon of Marathons. We would take a team of 250 private equity and infrastructure professionals together with family and friends to the Athens Marathon of 2010, exactly 2500 years after the battle of Marathon and the birth of Pheidippides’ legend, and hope to raise a further major pot of money for children’s charities around the world. At first the scale of the undertaking seemed overwhelming. But so many friends and colleagues in our industries greeted the idea with such enthusiasm – not least PEI – that soon enough we were on our way. Looking back on it now the MoM was an extraordinary experience for us all. Despite losing over 60 prospective participants to injury or for other personal reasons over the months before we arrived in Athens, we fielded only just short of 250 runners and walkers on the day. Many, many firms gave their support to the event, and countless individuals worked hard to help raise as much money for charity as possible. As at the time of this souvenir publication going to press that number stands at around €1.6 million and I believe that there’s more to come. Amazing. The Marathon of Marathons now stands as the largest single charitable fundraising event by our industries – something for which we should all be tremendously proud. As I write donations are still coming in, and you, dear reader, are kindly invited to make a last-minute contribution via the MoM website: www.marathonofmarathons.org. As Ewan McGregor says every extra euro, pound and dollar will make a difference to a child’s life somewhere. If we could reach €2 million it would be truly remarkable! We have had the good fortune to find some outstanding charities to work with, several of which are closely connected to the private equity and Alternative Insight
Letter from John Campbell In the footsteps of Pheidippides | Athens, 31 October 2010 3 infrastructure communities. Indeed, it was an eye-opener to me to discover in the course of planning the Marathon of Marathons the true depth and breadth of commitment which so many companies and individuals in our sectors make to charitable activities. The Private Equity Foundation has itself raised over £20 million in recent years. Impetus Trust, founded by the marvellous Stephen Dawson, has raised over £18 million. The Muir Maxwell Trust, set up by Jonny and Ann Maxwell to honour their son Muir and other epileptic children, has raised over £4 million. These are just three of the more visible examples of that massive iceberg – or is the word ‘warmthberg’? – of other support which so many individuals within our sector commit to philanthropic activity. Our communities have much to be proud of in this work as, so often, the money is accompanied by that additional hands-on support for the underlying charitable enterprises, which is of course the hallmark of private equity investing. As we determined at the outset, half of all funds raised will be distributed to UNICEF and the other half will be distributed to a very carefully selected group of charities with a focus on children under the age of 18. In this publication, starting on p. 8 we introduce each of the beneficiary charities and explain what they are trying to accomplish. Each of their causes is a great one. We are delighted that, thanks to the many thousands of donors to the Marathon of Marathons, we are now able to support them meaningfully. For me personally, the Marathon of Marathons produced so many highlights that I cannot begin to encapsulate my feelings in this introduction. Tears of joy, poignancy, gratitude and laughter welled in my eyes as I read in these pages the tales of true human spirit, of suffering and of the MoMers who played their part on the road from Marathon to Athens on 31 October “It was an eye-opener to me to discover in the course of planning the MoM the true depth and breadth of commitment which so many companies and individuals in our sectors make to charitable activities.” 2010. I wish to thank every single MoMer who joined us in Athens that weekend together with their fervent supporters. But it is my privilege to also be able to thank all the trustees, the patrons, the organisational team and the massed ranks of individual financial contributors and of the corporate members of the MoM Supporters Club, as well as the beneficiary charities themselves. And in that context we must particularly thank Ewan McGregor, in his role as a UNICEF ambassador, for his numerous messages of support and encouragement. Our thanks also go to Bruce Tulloh, our Olympic Official Trainer, for all of his hard work over many months and to Eddie Izzard, Marathoner Extraordinaire, for inspiring us on one of our training sessions in London. Every single person and each individual organisation have made a real difference. Please look at their names in this brochure and remember them and give thanks on behalf of children in need for what each of them has done. But, finally, I would like to add two particularly important thank-you’s. First, to Richard O’Donohoe, David Hawkins, Philip Borel, David Snow and their colleagues at PEI for their outstanding support from first to last. As our partners in this endeavour they have not least provided us with unparalleled access to the oxygen of publicity; this souvenir publication is their inspiration and has been prepared and produced by them. And, lastly, to all my partners and colleagues in Campbell Lutyens, 27 of whom, in addition to all their organisational work, actually ran or walked the MoM accompanied by 11 of their family members. To date they have raised well in excess of the magnificent sum of €300,000. I hope that you enjoy this commemorative booklet as much as I have. John Campbell February 2011 Alternative Insight
Page 1 and 2: Athens, 31 October 2010 In the foot
Page 3: Greeting from Euan McGregor In the
Page 7 and 8: RUNNERS AND RIDERS In the footsteps
Page 9 and 10: ORGANISATIONS REPRESENTED BY INDIVI
Page 11 and 12: The Marathon of Marathons charities
Page 19 and 20: THE TRAINING In the footsteps of Ph
Page 21 and 22: The pre-race luncheon In the footst
Page 23 and 24: The pre-race luncheon In the footst
Page 25 and 26: Notes from the Road In the footstep
Page 37 and 38: Clash of the editors In the footste
Page 39 and 40: Notes from the road In the footstep
Page 41 and 42: Notes from the road In the footstep
Page 43 and 44: THe Dinner In the footsteps of Phei
Page 45 and 46: The results In the footsteps of Phe
Page 47 and 48: Closing note In the footsteps of Ph

Marathon of Marathons 2010 - PEI Media

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