A MAN has gotten himself into the festive spirit by “running a reindeer” in aid of raising cash for charity.
Craig Baines was sponsored for a 10km run in the shape of one of Santa’s famous sleigh-pullers on Saturday.
The 38-year-old did the run in aid of the Jingle Spirit campaign – which aims to raise £10,000 for multiple charities.
The project manager from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, is a keen runner and added this fundraiser to the £5,000 he and his running group have already raised this year.
Sharing images of the route he took, Craig’s run is tracked through fitness app Strava, and makes out the rough shape of a reindeer – complete with antlers.
The route took Craig across multiple hills so didn’t make for an easy run.
However, the runner finished his challenge in under an hour, and raised £200 towards the pot of money that’s being raised through the Jingle Spirit campaign.
The Jingle Spirit campaign was created by the Worldwide Christmas Eve Jingle Facebook page – which has over 450,000 members.
The campaign aims to raise money for eight different children’s charities through multiple fundraising methods and donations.
Craig shared images of his route to Facebook on Saturday, with the caption: “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…
“Be prepared to be amazed by this.
“As part of our #jinglespirit campaign, I was sponsored to ‘run a reindeer’ this morning using Strava!
“Personally I think I nailed it and I won’t hear any criticism.
“Even Santa would mistake this for Rudolph, except it’s me who has the red nose.
“Keep donating, keep that total moving upwards!
The post has gained over 800 likes, with dozens of comments praising Craig for his efforts – although some questioned the shape of his reindeer.
Bonnie Hunter said: “Ahh that is amazing, well done!”
Janice Barker joked: “Fantastic, I knew it was a reindeer straight away, after I read the post! Love it.”
Kimmy Danielle Yates added: “That’s brilliant, love it, excellent job.”
Kirsty Kearsey quipped: “Brilliant! At first glance I thought it was Peppa Pig.”
Annette McCormick commented: “Wow! That’s awesome, well done.”
Speaking today, Craig said: “I opted for the reindeer because obviously it’s Christmas and I wanted to do something that would grab people’s attention.
“I run all the time, so running 10k is a regular occurrence for me. This time I wanted to do something that would stand out and also represent Christmas.
“Essentially we are raising money for eight different children’s charities, all of whom have very different needs and focuses.
“This is part of the worldwide Christmas jingle Facebook group, which started in 2020 to bring communities together to “ring a bell” for Santa at 6pm on Christmas Eve.
“But it was reasonably easy to plan it, even though we got the tail the wrong way round!
“I’ve seen the comments comparing the drawing to Peppa Pig and what not, but it’s fine, they absolutely had a point!
“It doesn’t matter to me as long as it gets noticed.
“My running group – excluding the Jingle Spirit stuff – has raised just over £5,000 this year for various charities.
“And I’ve personally done about £4,000 through various running events.”
The Jingle Spirit campaign has so far raised over £5,000 at the time of writing.
The campaign is raising money for children’s charities based across the world.
For those wishing to donate to the cause, the link can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jinglespirit
