A 12-year-old from Westville, Anna Dardagan, raised almost R15 000 to donate to a less privileged school in Drakensberg. Anna Dardagan with her father Gregg, running for charity
DURBAN - Westville pupil Anna Dardagan has used her passion for running to lend a helping hand to the less privileged. The 12-year-old Anna completed a two-hour-long run on the beachfront that saw her raise almost R15 000 for the Impendle Pre-Primary School in Drakensberg.
Anna said the school stayed in her heart after she was introduced to it through her parents’ employee. Her parents made a trip to the school to meet the children and teachers and they met two other schools in the same area.
“After a while, I decided to just get some stuff for them, some food and some toiletries, and then I got some donations to get more,” Anna said.
She said of the three schools she had seen, she was still drawn to the pre-primary. “The primary school and the high school are funded by the government, but the pre-school is not and has to find ways of supporting itself.
“Many parents in the area do rely on the school to help look after their young children while they work during the day, but resources are not easy to come by, and without the additional funding by the government this challenge becomes even greater,” she explained.
She said the idea of running came up as she was collecting donations for the school and was thinking how she could raise money on a larger scale.
“I am a runner and so I thought about doing a run and getting sponsored, and the idea went quite well. I started training a little over a month before the day with some help from my parents, both of whom are accomplished runners themselves, incorporating a programme of building up distances and then tapering off in between my usual school sports and athletics commitments,” she said.
The conditions on the day of the run were freezing cold with blistering winds and bouts of rain on and off throughout the day, she said. That did not discourage her as she set off on her challenge at 3pm. She started her run along the promenade joined by her parents, Gregg and Phillipa Dardagan, as well as other family and friends.
“It was not all smooth sailing, however, and with half an hour to go I found myself having to dig deep in order to meet my goal of a two-hour run. I completed 17km in 1 hour 58 minutes and I felt my worst during that last kilometre, so I walked the last one to two minutes,” she said.
Anna will be presenting her donations to the school in October and is inviting anyone who would like to donate, or any businesses that would like to get involved, to do so.
If you want to help Anna’s cause please email phillipadardagan@gmail.com
THE MERCURY
Related Topics: