United Way Chennai, a not-for-profit organisation, organised its first annual run — the CREDAI CEO run, to encourage Chief Executive Officers of leading companies to participate by running for social causes, at the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium on Sunday.
The event was also a prelude to the Wipro Chennai Marathon, which will be held in December.
“The idea was to increase awareness among top officials of companies about the various causes they can support,” said Shyamala Ashok, CEO, United Way Chennai.
“‘In our past collaborations, we witnessed that the amount of money collected for supporting social causes remained more or less stagnant. So this time, before the marathon, we decided to hold a campaign and bring together CEOs and the NGOs we have collaborated with. On Sunday alone we raised around Rs. 24 lakh,” she said.
The run is aimed at generating awareness in areas of education, health, environment and women in need. The proceeds from the event will be distributed among the 14 NGOs partnered with United Way.
The organisation will also be launching its Born Learning — readiness to school campaign where it aims to cover 50,000 anganwadis across the State and offer training to teachers, mothers and support learning.
80 CEOs race
The day began with a warm-up session, followed by a team of Zumba dancing specialists energising the crowd before the run. Around 80 CEOs including Lakshmi Narayanan of Cognizant Technologies, Mr. Suresh Krishna, president, CREDAI, Mr. C.K. Kumaravel, founder and CEO, Naturals chain of salons and spas, participated in the run.
The run was flagged off by ‘Amazing Auto’ Annadurai and Commodore R.S. Vasan (Retd.) of the Indian Navy. “I’m privileged to be invited to the event,” said Annadurai.
“The event has raised awareness about our organisation amongst donors and others as well,” said D. Chandrasekhar, president, Madras Dyslexia Association.
