USA 2025 - A black and white send off?

I had contact from one of the Toon Army NYC branch this week. I’ve stayed in touch ever since I met him at the end of the 2011 USA run. It’s early days in terms of planning the send off but I think there will be a good black and white contingent at Coney Island. This will be brilliant from a personal point of view. 

Long term readers may remember that I had the company for the Toon Army NYC branch for the final 13 miles of the run across the USA in 2011. I look forward to being back on the boardwalk with them next year at Coney Island.

Run Geordie Run T-Shirts in the pipeline

I’m often asked when there will be a new Run Geordie Run t-shirt. Sales of various different designs have raised close to £40,000 over the years and it’s always been an excellent way of getting funds into St. Benedict's Hospice (and a host of other charities). I’m pleased to report that I have an initial design and will be reaching out to some local companies for quotes next week. If they come back as favourable (i.e. there is enough margin for a profit for St. Benedict's Hospice) then I’ll be taking up long term supporter, David Gateshill’s kind offer of paying for their production. 

If costs are deemed to high, then David will be paying the money direct to St. Benedict's Hospice anyway. While it’s an absolute win/win for the hospice, it would be nice to use t-shirt sales as a way of growing the charity fund. A huge thank you goes to David for his kind support. The initial draft design is below. 

The USA 2025 t-shirt design is very similar to the 2011 t-shirt that proved to be very popular.

Run Geordie Run Leaflets in the pipeline

The artwork files for the Run Geordie Run USA 2025 tri-fold leaflet have gone to the printer for checking. I’ve also asked one of my kind sponsors if they can settle the invoice. Hopefully, I’ll have 1000 of these important fundraising tools in my possession soon. I’m looking forward to getting back into the old routine of offering a leaflet to everyone I meet. 

It’s no exaggeration to say that the leaflets will dominate all of the contact I have with anybody, anywhere and at any time. They’ve always been so useful, before and during a big run, in being able to get a lot of information to people when I don’t have a lot of time to spend. They are also an important tool to have to hand to police, border control, the US embassy where I’ll be getting a visa next year to name but a few. 

I just did a search through my old tweets and there’s one from the 14th July 2016 that says “Croation border control not too interested in my passport but all over the Run Geordie Run across Europe leaflet.”. I don’t have a picture of that sadly, but I do remember handing one to a kind cafe owner soon after. 

If I see the same successful outcome with leaflets this time as I have done in the past then it’ll be money well spent. They have led to many charitable donations as well as discounts on supplies needed for the particular runs. I seem to recall getting a satellite phone rental in Australia at an extraordinarily good rate.  

One of my favourite images is the staff at my long term sponsor D-Line with the 2018 leaflet. I remember a good few quid being raised when I visited on that particular day.