Primedia’s ‘Nelly There’ fundraising concept was designed to assist Nelly Zitha, the wheelchair-bound receptionist at Primedia Outdoor, to help pay for essential physiotherapy not covered by medical aid.
“We were thinking of putting a team together to enter the Momentum 94.7 Challenge and I thought it would be a great opportunity to not just have a good time but also leverage the event to help fund Nelly’s treatment. Everyone loved the ‘Nelly There’ name and it stuck,” says Storm Ackerman, Primedia Outdoor direct sales manager.
After staff and clients were canvassed to determine interest in participating in the race and contribute personally to Nelly’s therapy fund via an entry fee, a team was selected and training sessions were held over weekends to get everyone up to speed.
Finally the big day arrived and fortuitously the weather played its part after a very wet week of overcast, rainy conditions. But there was no dampening the spirits of the Nelly There team, a fair mix of seasoned cyclists and ‘noobies’ and, notwithstanding the unfortunate mechanical breakdowns experienced by a couple of riders, resulting in their retirement from the race, everyone crossed the finishing line in a little over five hours. ‘Nelly There’ made it all the way there.
Cycling nearly 100kms of a gruelling new route is no mean feat and deserving of high praise, which is exactly what the team and Primedia Outdoor received from Gordon Patterson, business director at OMD Group and highly regarded client who joined the Nelly There Team.
“Rarely have I had the opportunity to participate in such a genuine, well organied media owner networking opportunity. I truly had fun. The spirit, the enthusiasm and the participation across your company was amazing. Even the Ra-Ra girls were great and seemed to have real fun.
“It’s easy to put such success down to organisation but that would not be entirely true. It was a success simply because your team wanted to be there. It was an authentic expression of your company spirit…. and it was for a good cause or perhaps it was because it was for a relevant good cause!” Patterson said in an email to the team and company.
And, in a fitting tribute to this truly remarkable group of caring individuals, a touching comment from the ever-smiling Nelly, “ Thank you, thank you. I am so happy. Thank you.”
