In an effort to atone for many sins associated with a long and undistinguished rugby career, DIT lecturer, Joe Mc Grath approached the Union of Students in Ireland with an idea in April 2000. During a brief hospital stay (rugby injury), and having failed in numerous attempts to chat up the nurses, Joe read the only book he could find. It was about Chernobyl. Some weeks later he happened to be at Dublin Airport and saw some very ill children being cared for by Irish volunteers. In a conversation with the volunteers he discovered that they were in Ireland for surgery and for cancer treatment. He asked how he could help……and the Students 10K was born.

 

Julian de Spáinn, president of USI, Rory Mc Daid USI’s Equality Officer and Damien Pedreschi from DIT organised the very first 10K ( a sponsored walk by students of – you guessed it ten kilometres!). Students in every college in the country took part in fundraising events ranging from the reliable table quiz to the painful sideburn wax!

That year over €200,000 was raised. The money was spent in Belarus by an Irish Organisation, Chernobyl Childrens Project. Part of the funds raised was used to buy an ambulance and a general purpose mini bus which were driven by students to Belarus. Julian de Spáinn, Rory Mc Daid, Chris Newell and Orla Power were the first of over eighty students to travel to Belarus under the 10K Banner.

 

Building on the success of the first 10K, and just when we thought it was all over, USI passed a motion at their annual congress pledging support to the annual charity event. Since the first four students to travel to Belarus didn’t get lost or get arrested for trafficking, it was agreed to send more students to Belarus to see the country, source projects that the 10K could fund and witness first hand the institutions we could aid. That September ten students from ten different colleges spent a week travelling around Belarus.