Take on an activity challenge for charity

Annual dragon boat racing competition the Dragons at The Docks is a key date in the Irish property industry’s calendar and a vital fundraiser for a number of extremely worthy causes. But this year’s event won’t be taking place in its conventional venue of Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock, because large-scale live events continue to be limited by pandemic precautions.

So in place of the live event, this year the organisers have come up with an ingenious virtual contest that encourages participants to get active while raising money for good causes. For 2021 the competition is setting teams the challenge of walking, crawling, running, rowing or cycling the almost 10,000km distance from Dublin to Hong Kong, the home of dragon boat racing itself. For this special virtual contest, progress towards the destination will be tracked via the Strava fitness app.

Participating teams, which can have up to 20 members, just have to sign up to take part, pledge to hit the competition’s fundraising target and make the virtual journey by 26 August.

The competition benefits five charities based in Ireland, including homelessness charity Dublin Simon Community, Aware – which supports sufferers of depression – the Alone charity for the elderly, ISPCC – the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children - and Women’s Aid. The event has been bringing Ireland’s property industry together to do good since 2017, so far raising more than €893,000 for local charities.

Ballymore is supporting the event and there’s the opportunity for colleagues to take part by signing up here. It’s a great way to give others a helping hand.