A 100 MILE challenge for the month of February has raised over £46,000 for the Community Search and Rescue Team, in memory of Paul ‘Cub’ McCullough.
On the last day of the walk the group involved with the challenge met at Falls Park to take the last journey of the month, a walk to the Big Fish. There, they presented and handed over the check to the local search and rescue team. Hundreds of people took part in the challenge to walk 100 miles during the month for a very worthy cause.
Joe McDonnell, one of the two men behind the challenge said the final day was very emotional for those involved.
“We never expected to raise that amount in just one short month,” he said.
The Community Search and Rescue Team was chosen by Joe and his friend Ryan Whelan, as a thank you for the help they received from them in 2016.
“For years both clubs (Cumman Spoirt an Phobail and Belfast Celtic YMLC) have wanted to do something for the CRS team as an appreciation for their help in recovering a good friend and community man, Paul ‘Cub’ McCullough,” said Joe.
“With the pandemic people had more time to think and reflect on what's important in life. A restless night for myself led to the idea that now was the right time to put in place some type of fundraising opportunity to give back to the CRS team.
“That night after listening to a motivational speech from Denzel Washington sparked the idea of 100 miles in February, a small goal to begin with, that then had a snowball effect and became bigger than I ever thought it would.
“I then sent a text to a good friend of mine Ryan Whelan from BCYM, another club close to Cub’s heart, that then brought both of us seeking approval from Cub’s families to get the go ahead to move forward with the plans. Both sides of his family did not hesitate at all to give us permission and wanted to help and get involved any way they could.”
The two men then contacted the Community Search and Rescue Team, and they were thrilled to hear of the idea and wanted to come on board any way that they could with keeping in line with the current restrictions. This then led to putting the target in place to raise £1,000 to help the volunteers continue to do their amazing work.
They took their plans to social media and the feedback from the community everywhere and even in different countries, from England to New York and even as far as Abu Dhabi, spiralled the plans even further.
They then set out to get videos from high profile boxers, actors, footballers to give the plans momentum and with the help of friends they achieved this and were flooded with a huge amount of support videos that then had to be put into a schedule to spread them over the course of the month and each video gave encouragement and motivation to all who signed up to take part.
Ryan Whelan said: “Initially it was just us two and we set a target of £1,000. We are both part of separate clubs, local rivals, but we decided to come together for this and once we branched out and let people know what we were doing the uptake was incredible.
“The third week in January was the date to publish the plans as both clubs had been completing their own initiatives within the clubs.
“The first day of February and we had hundreds sign up and the buzz was amazing! The build-up was unreal, and people could not wait to get started.
“People’s minds were focused on this challenge and not on the negative news that was being published every day in regard to Covid.
“During the month everybody was focused on completing the 100 miles and the coverage across the social media platforms was surreal.”
Quickly the total was rising and the group did not want to push or pressure people to make donations.
Ryan added: “We are in the middle of a pandemic and we are limited to what we can do and the community still came together and raised over £46,000!”
This challenge was for the heroes from the Community Search and Rescue Team, volunteers who give up their weekends, days and nights to patrol our city looking for vulnerable people and organize searches when loved ones go missing.
“This challenge brought all communities together, it changed people's lives and got people out and being active when people feared to cross their door.
“This gave people a focus for the month and an ambition to make sure they reached their target.”
Ryan also spoke about how the challenge had affected people in the most unexpected of ways.
“On Saturday night I got a message request on Facebook from someone I've never met, or even spoken to thanking us for letting him be part of the challenge and how he was in a bad place and this changed his mindset and he’s a lot happier and content.
“Paul has brought so many people together even five years after his death. In life he did that normally but now when he’s at peace his legacy still lives on and uniting people.
“That is what it is all about.”
