GO NUTS for HortAid 2018 ahead of International Mud Day

Team competition is hotting up ahead of BALI's registered charity Perennial’s biennial GO NUTS for HortAid Challenge, which this year is sponsored by Gabriel Ash and takes place on 30 September in Dorking, Surrey. The 5km mud run features over 60 military-style obstacles and teams of horticulture professionals will compete on the day to be crowned overall winner of the Grand Trophy. Ahead of International Mud Day on 29 June, Richard Curle, Managing Director of Surrey-based landscaping firm Landscape Associates, has issued a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ challenge to other landscapers and businesses from across the industry. His team is training for the event between building show gardens and completing client jobs, and he has this week challenged other horticulturists to sign up asap.

 

He said: “Perennial is our industry charity and needs our support to continue to offer its life-changing services. We’d love to see as many of our colleagues from across the industry as possible on 30 September. We think we’ll win but we’d love to know if you think otherwise. It’s well known that landscapers are the strongest, fastest, leanest, meanest horts out there but if you think you’re up for proving us wrong, we’d love to see you on the starting line.”

 

Perennial is the only UK charity dedicated to helping everyone working in or retiring from horticulture when times get tough. The charity offers free and confidential advice and support to all horticulturists and their families including gardeners, garden designers, landscapers, landscape architects, nursery and garden centre staff, parks and grounds staff, arborists and tree surgeons.  Perennial’s work depends on voluntary donations from the horticulture industry and the GO NUTS for HortAid challenge is just one of the many ways horticulture businesses can choose to get involved.

 

Chris Crooker, Events Manager at Perennial, said: “We’re thrilled that Landscape Associates will be joining us on 30 September and our thanks goes to Rich and his team for throwing down the gauntlet to encourage others to take part. Our inaugural NUTS event in 2016 raised over £13,000 for Perennial, which is enough to keep a Perennial caseworker on the road, visiting people in desperate need of help in their homes, for just over 3 months. We’d love to match that this year and look forward to helping more teams sign up over the next few weeks.”

 

On why he and his team are doing the challenge, Curle continues; “It’s simple: thousands of our colleagues from across our industry need help and Perennial is there for them in times of crisis or hardship. Our work relies on good health and fitness, but you never know what hand life is going to deal you next and if we should ever find ourselves in need of extra help, we know we can turn to Perennial.”

 

Other teams already signed up for the challenge include headline sponsors Gabriel Ash, Perennial’s PR team Bloom PR & Communications, Knights Landscaping and Chartfords Trees Ltd.

 

To find out more about the GO NUTS for HortAid Challenge, and to sign up as a team of between 5 and 10 people, visit https://perennial.org.uk/events/nuts-challenge/ or contact Maya Albert on 01372 384043 or malbert@perennial.org.uk.