A group of West Coast walkers raised more than €1,700 for charity last weekend…with a fancy dress pub crawl!
It was fun in the sun for the 50 people who entered a Charity Bar Walk to buy - appropriately - walking aids and wheelchairs for Portimão Hospital.
The walk by residents of Vale da Telha, outside Aljezur, was the brainchild of Cath Baker, inspired by the charity pub crawls that were so popular back in her native Lancashire.
It began at O Paulo restaurant on the clifftop promontory at Arrifana and ended at the Restaurante Vale da Telha. And in between they visited the “aid stations” at Taska da Arrifana, Oceano, Hello Sailor, Brisamar, Hugo’s Bar, Restaurante Font do Vale and Taska do Karisma.
With the majority of the walkers in fancy dress and nine bars selected along the route for their “pit stops” in 29 degrees of sweltering heat, the 3.54km (2.2 miles) took the best part of four and a half hours to complete!
And that’s hardly surprising as each of the walkers, who all paid a €2 entry fee, also had to sing a karaoke song at Hugo’s Bar, one of the “aid stations”.
Cath, who once again was backed by local community association AMOVATE (The Association of Residents and Friends of Vale da Telha) which, in 2011, helped her to raise the funds to buy nine new wheelchairs for the hospital’s orthopaedic department, declared afterwards:
“It was a fantastic day with a great atmosphere and it turned out to be a huge success, with the total raised so far reaching €1700, and rising, once I collect all the tins and donations from the bars. I am one happy lady; this is going to help so many people,” she smiled.
“I was overwhelmed with the generosity not just of friends and the bar owners but also of complete strangers and motorists who stopped to ask what we were doing, taking pictures and giving us money. There was loads of enthusiasm from the public, with car drivers tooting horns and waving, actually stopping their cars to see what it was all about. “There were a lot of laughs and a few tears because of the sheer generosity of people, particularly from customers in O Paulo’s where we began the walk. The people on one table were from Mozambique and not only did they want their photographs taken with the walkers in fancy dress, one man gave us €50 and his friends raised another €40 with a quick whip-around."
“Paulo Silva, the owner, also generously gave us €100 himself and provided a free buffet to see everyone off on their way. Also, all the bars and restaurants where we stopped along the route were very generous and welcoming with owner Jose Orelha at the final stop, the Restaurante Vale Da Telha, kindly opening up on his day off specially for the walk. It was such a brilliant day that we now plan to make it an annual event, choosing a different charity to benefit each year."
Cath went on to say: “The reason I chose Portimão Hospital this year was because I saw one lady in a terrible state after chemotherapy who could barely stand and there was no wheelchair to get her to her car.
“It broke my heart and I just needed to do something. The idea was to take a serious cause, like raising funds for the hospital, but to add the fun element of dropping off at selected bars, having a sup or two and enjoying a little craic and banter. The bar owners all happily joined in, agreeing to make donations for each drink sold. “One or two of the walkers, having taken on a little too much liquid refreshment along the way, were perhaps staggering a little at the finish, but at least they did so knowing that the money they have helped to raise will see some of Portimao Hospital’s infirm patients walk a little steadier thanks to the walking aids we can now supply. That was well worth all the sore heads the following morning!”
The mood was such that there was even a proposal of marriage during the evening disco which followed the walk - a “will you marry me” proposal over DJ Rockindad’s microphone by one of the walkers, Sally, to another walker, her partner Alan which, to the relief of everyone present, he immediately accepted!
