The history of Santa Speedo Run Budapest
In year 2000 students in Boston, MA, started to do a charity run for the 'Women's Place' aid centre.
Lying on the same latitude as Budapest,
the Boston Santa
Speedo Run event's only dress code was a speedo, a santa hat, and that 30-100 USD that went to the donation.
In the US, it is a widely accepted custom that the runners go to friends, family and workplace and gather extra
donations themselves and bring it to the run. An older schoolmate of mine is the head behind the run in Boston.
The idea is funny, the goal is noble, therefore it was a must that the first Run took off in 2004 with 12 runners and
the guard of 24 police officers :). A year later the
Toronto event started off, too.
300+ runners attend the show annually.
Individualism in clothing is welcome, as long as it is funny and looks anything like Santa. Experience shows that even a
long white santa beard waving in the freezing wind can cheer up the mood of the crowd fighting for Christmas presents on the streets.
We receive our present from them: a smile :).
The headcount of runners is growing in Budapest each year. Those who join us once are likely to return next year, too. The experience helps to
understand that the cold does not matter because the ones we help cannot do these things otherwise. Let's make a few minutes of joy in Budapest!
They say that laughter is the best medicine. When 80 more half-naked runners appear on the streets, image-capturing devices of all sorts
are produced from pockets as if there was a mobile phone company campaign, and in certain cases we find the picture taker among the runners...:)!
There are some who had trouble running the first time and had run a marathon last year. There were some who jumped
the train to join us, took a video and produced a movie for us. There were some who brought her daughter to do figure
skating for us (and there were those girls, too), there were some, who called us after the news broadcast and told
they wanted to help....
We have but that we believe in, but that is something we are willing to give!
Ho-ho-ho-hoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!! :-)