Forest Green Walk – Further Update From Karl Davies
I am writing these notes after attending the superbly entertaining Graham Allner ” tribute night”. For those who didn’t attend you missed a great evening. Graham was joined by many of his ex players from his time at the club. Each and everyone spoke with great affection for not only Graham, but also for the Harriers. At the end of the evening, Graham was presented with an inscribed clock. This was a gift from the supporters of Kidderminster Harriers to recognise the achievements of our own, ” special one”! Thanks must go to KHIST Chairman, Geoff Coles, who organised a superb evening. Dave Bradley and Steve Miller from BBC Hereford & Worcester were also on hand to compete the evening and did a great job.
As I am sure many of you know, preparations for the Forest Green walk are well underway. We have completed our first practice walk and look forward to the next walk this coming Saturday. We hope to see as many of the registered walkers as possible on Saturday. We are planning to walk 15 miles, starting from Aggborough at 10 am. We will head out to Kinver on the canal path and return the same way. It’s a flat route, so even if your training is not quite on target, you should be able to tackle this distance. There will be pub stop in Kinver to enjoy a refreshing lemonade, before making the return journey!
Our target is to raise £10,000. At the time of writing we are approaching £ 4,000 in donations. Thank you very much to all who have contributed. Just to remind you all why we are tackling this walk. Steve Millington, a great friend and Harrier, sadly passed away last November. It was decided that in tribute to Steve we would raise money for his chosen charity, Macmillan. So, on the 7th April 50 walkers will set out from Aggborough to walk the 65 miles to Forest Green, to arrive in time for our game with them on Tuesday evening. This is a challenging walk and all the walkers will appreciate your support.The route will follow the river Severn footpath. The first day will see the walkers arrive in Tewkesbury, having covered 35 miles. The following day will see us compete the final 30 miles and up the ” small” hill to arrive at Forest Green.
As part of the drive to reach our monetary target, we are offering supporters, or any local business the opportunity to sponsor one of the 50 registered walkers. We are looking for a minimum donation of £50. For your kind donation you will receive the following; featured on the KHIST website; featured in the Harriers Matchday programme prior to the walk; featured in a Shuttle article prior to the walk and recognised on our “just giving page”. Sponsors can also provide a shirt with their company name embossed for their chosen walker to wear. We have already had a tremendous response to this idea, but there are plenty of walkers left to sponsor. Please contact either myself on 07507 272579, or Dave Pountney on, 07872 915886.
We are very pleased to be in possession of the Matchball from the 1987 FA Trophy Final replay. The ball was presented to Harriers legend, Paul “Ocker” Davies, by our boot boy from that era, John Pryce. Paul immediately offered it to KHIST and asked that we should use it to rise money for the sponsored walk. We are inviting offers for the ball till the 1st March with the highest offer winning this unique piece of history. I would like to thank both John and Paul for this wonderful gesture.
Finally, can I just remind everyone of the various ways you can donate money. By far the easiest method is to log onto www.justgiving.com/fgrwalkers. Alternatively you can donate by text. Simply text the message, KHFC65 and the amount to 70070. Please give generously to this great cause. Remember all the walkers are fellow Harriers.
Karl Davies
