St Mary’s Cambridge Annual Fun Run

Students and teachers at St Mary’s School in Cambridge donned their most extravagant fancy dress costumes on Friday 22^nd October to raise vital funds for local, national and international charities in the school’s annual fun run.

The traditional fun run – back for the first time since 2019 – began at 1:30 pm at Lammas Land, Newnham, with both the Junior and Senior School’s taking part. Both students and staff created an array of imaginatively designed costumes to fit this year’s chosen theme: ‘Fun Run – The Musical’.

Scope for creativity was high with participants drawing inspiration for their costumes from a wide range of sources. From classic Hollywood musicals and West End hits to the stars of Broadway – the event was a visual delight.

Every year, St Mary’s School raises a substantial amount of funds from this event, with more than £8250 collected in 2019 for charities including Friends of the Earth, Well Child and Cam Sight.

Last year’s annual fun run was put on hold, for the first time in decades, due to the pandemic, but this year the school was raising funds for the following great local, national and international causes:

• Cambridge Women’s Aid
• EACH (East Anglia Children’s Hospices)
• Alzheimer’s Research UK
• Young Minds 
• CJ Community in Zimbabwe – for the building of the new Mary Ward secondary school in Mbizo
• RENATE (Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking & Exploitation)

Charlotte Avery, Headmistress at St Mary’s School, said: ‘Our traditional charity fun run is steeped in St Mary’s history and has always been a colourful and exuberant way to end the first half of the autumn term. We were obviously disappointed that last year’s event couldn’t take place, but we definitely created a stir this year with our musically themed costumes all taking centre stage at the start line.

‘With both the Senior and Junior Schools running in the event, and raising sponsorship, we hope to raise lots of money for worthwhile causes at what continues to be a very challenging time for the third sector. We are always very grateful for the support and generosity that both our students and their parents give us for our chosen charities.‘

As in previous years, St Mary’s hosted a ‘Pink Morning’ ahead of the fun run. Students all came into school wearing pink items for the national ‘Wear It Pink’ campaign. All monies raised from this morning will go towards Breast Cancer Now.

In addition, the school went timetable free to host a ‘Wellbeing Morning’ ahead of the fun run, with students able to pick from a carousel of activities to undertake – each designed specifically to support mental health and personal development.

Read more from Headmistress Charlotte Avery in our Autumn/Winter 2021 issue here.

Photos by Matthew Power Photography.