Tonbridge’s Colour Run raises £4,500 for Sri Lanka

More than 700 boys and 70 staff joined together last Friday (3 May) in Tonbridge School’s inaugural Colour Run around the school’s sports fields. 

The event, part of the Head Boy’s charity day, raised a fantastic £4,500 for Child Action Lanka, the school’s partner charity in Sri Lanka. 

Runners started the event with a brief ‘colour party’ before running a 3km route, along which they were liberally covered in colourful powder thrown by the school’s prefects. The runners were soon thoroughly coated – the powder is non-toxic and environmentally safe – and many ended up unrecognisable!

John Bleakley, Upper Master, heads the school’s Social Responsibility programme. “It was great to see the whole school community coming together, having fun and raising money for Child Action Lanka,” he said. “There was a fantastic community spirit, lots of laughs and, most importantly, a demonstrable commitment to maintaining our links with Child Action Lanka, despite all that Sri Lanka is going through.”

The school has strong links with Child Action Lanka and has sent more than 120 Tonbridge boys to bases across the island since 2014. The charity works to assist and transform the lives of over 1,500 disadvantaged children across the country. 

This year saw the launch of a new project to establish a new education centre in Batticaloa, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, which will transform the educational provision for more than 500 children in six communities within the region. Tonbridge School has also supported this project by shipping out two giant containers, consisting of furniture from its Temporary Science Centre and other donated equipment. 

The school is aiming to raise the £95,000 needed to build this new centre – the equivalent of £100 per boy and staff member in the school – as the best way to support the Batticaloa community, which is struggling to recover from the recent bombing of one of its churches. Child Action Lanka is directly involved in supporting the families of victims, including those who lost their lives and those needing urgent medical attention.

Following the Colour Run, the school has raised nearly £50,000 to date for the Batticaloa Education Centre Appeal. If you are able to donate, please click the link. 

Below: More photos from the Colour Run.