“Adding life to the days, where all too often no more days can be added to life”, that’s the Roparun’s motto, a relay race of more than 500 kilometres from Paris and Hamburg to Rotterdam. Teams of people work together on a sporting achievement, in order to raise money for charities focussed on palliative care.
An increasing number of municipalities along the Roparun route are now organising all sorts of different events, making sure the passing through of participants is turned into a truly festive occasion. The villages and towns which have proven to be best at this are given the ‘Roparunner Town’ status and will receive a significant amount of money to spend on palliative care in their region.
Zele Sparkles in Space
The Belgian village of Zele takes welcoming the Roparunners incredibly seriously. The entire village is captured in the theme, which was ‘Zele Sparkles in Space’ this year. An actual replica of the Apollo 11, measuring an impressive 25 meters in height, was built for this purpose. Even a launch was simulated with 4 horizontally positioned Cumulus smoke machines and blaze spots.
A fantastic DJ made sure there was an excellent atmosphere in Zele. Hundreds of people cheered on the Roparunners during their passage. One particularly nice detail was that the mayor and aldermen were positioned at the very front right throughout the night. The three Zele teams were serenaded live by musical star Jurgen Stein, there was a big screen, stilt walkers, Martians and various stages ... Everything was done to give the runners a great boost, making sure they could continue through the night.
Working together isn’t something you can do on your own
Literally everything is done to make sure this is turned into a fantastic event every single year, under the inspiring leadership of the Zele Fire Service.
FireWare has been providing support for lighting up the village square and setting up various different effects since 2008. This year also included contributions from JE-BHV and ProFhire employees. Evelements made sure there were a sufficient number of floodlights.
Lighting up the village square is only a very small part of everything which needs to be done during the passing through of the Roparun. It’s incredibly inspiring to see how many people, with so much energy, put in such an amazing amount of selfless effort for the Roparun. Being part of all of this is a real honour.
Videos:
http://www.tvoost.be/nieuws/brandweer-zele-bouwt-reuzeraket-voor-doortocht-roparun-28955
http://www.tvoost.be/nieuws/zele-weer-vol-voor-titel-va-roparunstad-29049
http://www.tvoost.be/nieuws/zele-op-zijn-kop-tijdens-doortocht-roparun-29035
