What started out as a runner’s club has evolved into a group of likeminded people who are fundraising for local charities and giving back to the community
What do you call a running group that acts as a social club and also a fundraising venture? To avoid making things complicated, maybe we can just call it a group of friends. And that’s exactly what Shelter Athletics is, a community of likeminded people and jogging enthusiasts who are keen to use their platform to raise funds for local charities in Hong Kong. The group’s latest fundraising challenge is One-For-One: a celebration of International Women’s Day where a team of eight female runners will run one metre per HK$1 donated. With an ambitious goal of HK$100,000 almost reached, the proceeds will go to Harmony House, the city’s first shelter for women and children affected by domestic violence, which was established in 1985.
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To keep idleness at bay during the infamous work-from-home days of the pandemic, sports enthusiast Jason Lam did what many remote workers took to doing around that time: he went on runs and posted about them on Instagram. As this habit grew, friends messaged him asking to join and soon, with Hong Kong allowing more people to gather publicly, Lam decided to create small running groups to connect all these runners with each other—a shelter for mutual friends who found more established running groups and gyms a bit intimidating. “It’s as simple as that,” says Lam. “You can come and learn something together. Or you can teach us something, I think that was the main thing; running is also the easiest sport to do because of the low barrier to entry.” Around 15 people join their weekly runs now and as many as 60 have come.
A marketing leader by career, Lam decided to have fun with a little branding and an Instagram page: “Well, [I thought] why don’t I officialise it a little bit more. So then people will know what dates we’re running and do it together.” Slowly and organically, it became a club for runners but also a platform for the community. “People in Hong Kong and a lot of our friends are definitely in a place of privilege compared to a lot of people around the world,” says Lam. “You could tell, they wanted to do something good for the community, but there was no real outlet in [donating to the big charities]; when you donate to the big ones, where does it go?”