Monday 13 June 2011

Starlight Walk 2011 - missing a trick?

On Saturday, I joined over 1000 other women of all ages to walk the annual Starlight Walk in support of Watfords Peace Hospice.

There were 2 route options; a 6 mile and a 13 mile.

Now, I'm all for Charity events, and understand the need for a novelty factor to ensure these events stand out in the crowd - starting at midnight on a Saturday cannot in my mind be construed as 'novelty' in the fun sense (as surely 9pm is a more sociable hour and prevents the unavoidable hurdles of negotiating the drunken hoards of Watford Town Centres' tequila generation), but it certainly reflects the Starlight theme accurately.

However, the second core theme to this event has left me slightly bemused....

It's a 'women only' event.

Why? Watfords Peace Hospice is as appropriate a cause to both men and women equally. It's very being is non-prejudice as to the gender of people it cares for - both the residents and their loved ones.

It's not like Breast Cancer Awareness which disporportionately afflicts Women, so money raising events therefore often use this as their novelty factor.

The Starlight Walk suffered a drop in participants this year, and they had to employ extra PR to drum up a last minute subscriptions to the event, plus adding the 6 mile route option, fearing the longer 13 mile route may be a deterrent.

Surely the key to populating this event is far more obvoius - open it up to the other half of the population that may also have an emotional or physical affinity to the cause.

Or am I missing something?