Breast Cancer Walk at the Zoo – FAIL
Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by Laura in Uncategorized
Yesterday there was a walk to raise money for breast cancer at the Joburg Zoo.
Sally took my kids and I met them there later.
She texted me at about 10h00 to say it was disastrous! What had happened sounded like a little piece of hell.
First of all there is no parking at the zoo so she had to park a good 10 min walk away from the entrance and then walk with 3 kids and a pram to the registration area (which was in the parking lot). She had pre-registered so set off to get the goodie bag and check in. They had split the names alphabetically combing A-D. Now these are the most common letters for surnames – its a fact! She waited with 4 children in the sun for over an hour to get their shirts (hers was an XXL as they had run out eventhough she had pre-registered) and goodie bags (which consisted of some brochures and pamphlets). She they found out that part of the walk was going to be done on the road.
So she bailed on the actual walk and instead took them to look at the animals. I dont blame her and would have done the same thing. Walking with kids and many many people along the road is really not my idea of fun.
By the time I got there it was insane. There were thousands of people – not sure how their numbers worked but people had numbers in the 6000s pinned to their shirts. Parking was a nightmare. There was no organisation what so ever. It was chaos. I walked in for free – noone was checking at the gate I entered in.
I couldnt seem to find who organised the event but either they have no experience in organising large functions or something just went very very wrong on the day.
But honestly it was very poorly organised. There as no planning around parking. People didnt know where to go, where the entrances where etc. Granted there is limited space there but again – forward planning and I am sure a plan could have been made. People pre-registered online so why were there no shirts in the correct size? They had numbers of people so why were the registration lines so long? Why not put more people on the letters with the most people?
The restaurant obviously couldnt cope but they had a huge big area that had no tables on it. Why not organise 10 more tables and hire extra waiters for the day?
What I find at these kinds of things is that people dont take kids into account. Kids dont cope with having to wait in long queues, they dont cope with chaos and long lines at toilets, they dont cope with having to search out juice.
Seriously if you are going to organise a function of this side then the least you can do is do it properly.
Huge fail for us – eventhough the kids handled it all very well and if you ask them – they had fun 
Louisa
Oct 19th, 2009
It sounds a bit chaotic, shame – it’s a pity that the event didn’t go off without a hitch because it really is for a good cause.
Laura
Oct 19th, 2009
Louisa – thats the thing it IS a good cause and people want to get involved and I do beleive it can work well. They just need to be alot more organised!
Barb – I agree its not something you do with kids!
Wenchy
Oct 19th, 2009
Suddenly I am very glad I was sick…. am glad I paid my R50 towards a good cause, but thankful not to have been subjected to the ‘walk’
Barb
Oct 19th, 2009
Yup was not a great experience – I would probably pay again *for the support factor* but will not be attending a walk like that again till my kids are all grown up and out of the house. By the time we had walked 3 blocks from the car to the Zoo, stood in lines for the toilet, waded through the 1000’s of milling people and stood in the lines for an hour my kids had decided the day was over. Thank goodness for Sally and the friends being there to brighten them up a bit.
Jeanette
Oct 19th, 2009
OMW so glad I didn’t do it!! What madness!
Gilz
Oct 19th, 2009
Nothing puts a bigger damper on an event, than it being poor organised.
Walk against Breast Cancer | Earth Babies Blog
Oct 20th, 2009
[...] Breast Cancer Walk at the Zoo Fail Female to Female Posted in Activities with kids, Uncategorized [...]
Sally
Oct 21st, 2009
it was crazy, an hour and a half in the hot sun to wait for a good bag with no goodies and the wrong size t-shirt was just beyond annoying.
I have done so many big races before and this as the worst by far