9 November 2018
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Long standing volunteer crew member Mike Brooks from Youghal RNLI has presented a donation of €5,000 to his lifeboat station on behalf of his employer, the German company Zwick//Roell. The funds will be used to help the station’s volunteers continue their work in saving lives at sea.
The multinational company launched a charity event, Zwick/Roell Runs the World, in July this year with a collective aim for the employees participating to complete 40,000km in 60 days. Each employee downloaded an app and recorded the distances they covered over the 60 days.
Mike and his four-legged walking companion, Mad Max, clocked up an impressive 613km coming eighth out of 523 employees who took part.
‘This was the second year Zwick//Roell had done this event for charity,’ Mike explained, ‘but this year it was an all or nothing for the employees with each of us having to download the Map My Run app and log our kilometres when out running or walking as it was in my case.
‘We all had to select a charity and explain how we are personally involved with it, so I did that providing an insight into my 24 years experience as a volunteer crew member in Youghal and explaining the role of the RNLI in search and rescue, and within the community. It was a fabulous challenge to be involved with and I am grateful to the company for their generosity.’
Derry Walsh, Youghal RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, said: ‘We would like to thank and commend Mike for thinking of the station in this way and for taking up and successfully completing the challenge. As a volunteer crew member, Mike knows only too well the time, commitment and efforts that goes into fundraising locally to ensure the lifeboat is fully equipped and that our crews are highly skilled and trained.’
