Walk 1K a day in February for charity

[KevinAndTracy]

A sponsorship page popped up on my FB feed for a friend of friend who is "walking 1K a day every day in February" - this is a middle aged woman (50ish) who is overweight and lives a sedentary life but is not disabled or recovering from any chronic injury or illness

AIBU to think - FFS, if you're so lazy/ unfit that you don't walk 1K most days just going about normal life then that is clearly something you need to address but do you really expect people to make a donation to charity for something so basic!!?

I mean what next - sponsor me for remembering to brush my teeth every day!

AIBU to think the above (I obviously wouldn't say it out loud to this woman or anyone who knows her IRL)

Totally with you on this.

I feel the same about sponsoring people not to drink for a month - I love a tipple but if you can't give it up for a month...

Perhaps it’s a lot for her but I can do 1km in the morning just getting the kids out and the dog out! In fact the park Intake the dog to twice a day is 1km from the house!

onenof the lads at work wanted sponsored for doing Dry Jan. I’m not sponsoring someone for something easy that half the country is doing anyway! I ‘jokingly’ told him I’d sponsor him if he did a 10km or similar but not for not drinking when no-one else is drink and he has no cash

Yanbu - I thought from your thread title that it was you who was starting this challenge and I was slightly open mouthed that this was even considered a challenge!

I don't get the point of charity donations for someone doing X in the first place.

Haha, they were my exact thought reading your title!

How can eanyone get by without naturally doing 1km as a bare minimum. She must literally sit on her arse the whole day!

I walk about 3k minimum a day just walking to and from station to get to work.

On more active days it is a heck of a lot more.

My 5 year old walks 5-6 times that amount minimum per day just on the school run, and has been doing so since he was 2 🙈 She must be really struggling both physically and mentally if that's her goal. She should definitely be encouraged, but not sure sponsoring is the way to go.

I mean, I literally didn't leave the house one day last week and still did more than 1km worth of walking 🙈

What does 1km translate to as steps roughly?

She must surely mean a 1k walk on top of normal day to day life?

Sponsorship should only be for things that are genuinely challenging and unpleasant to the individual doing it. There's no sacrifice in walking 1k a day, therefore nobody should support them. If they were going to do something horrible like take part in a cage fight MMA-style even though they were incredibly unfit, maybe that would be fair. Too many people seek sponsorship for something that is easy for them to achieve, or that they want to do, like a parachute jump.

I’ve walked 2.8k and done 3.7k steps so far today (school run and around the house - I’m heading out for an actual walk with the dog now) so I would guess 1k is 1500 steps? I think it would be pretty challenging NOT to get to 1km even if you were housebound.

There was someone at work a few years ago who wanted sponsorship to white water raft down the Zambezi in aid of charity. Ok. And then it emerged she was going immediately after her wedding. Ok, so it's your honeymoon then! Needless to say, I did not donate

I've just checked my FitBit app and I walked on average 9.9 km a day in 2024!!

1 km is nothing! Just basic pottering to the house, making cups of tea and going to the toilet! Even my grandad was managing far more than this when he was 96!!

I think this actually highlights the reason why we have so many obese people, as they are rather clueless about how active you should actually be!

I’m not a fan of sponsoring people for dry months, mediocre physical challenges, exotic holidays dressed up as charitable events. I had an annoying colleague pestering for sponsorship to cycle through France. I did have a look and it was 10% of the initial £3000 needed to
take part that went to charity. Ten percent! Ridiculous. Anyway I donated a tenner to the charity and replied to the WhatsApp group that I wanted to give and I know how important the charity is so I’ve donated directly.

Some people want a medal just for participating in life. People who want congratulations or sponsorship for walking around the block, not eating meat/not drinking booze/not buying new things/decluttering their crap for a couple of weeks - can you imagine explaining this to our ancestors from 200 years ago?

It doesn't stop there, you get lots of people who want praise for everything. People who say things like "I work hard for a living" or "I do everything for my baby" or "I make sure my kids have everything they need". These are not achievements, these are your responsibilities!