Beards On The Beach 2019

Back in late 2018 Mad About Schnauzers UK started planning a nationwide Mad About Schnauzers Beards on The Beach Walk to celebrate our 5th year. We wanted our members to get together and meet each other in person – virtual friends becoming real friends (as many of us had already done)!

We decided that the date should be Sunday 28th April 2019 as this was the last weekend before many beaches close to dogs (at least in the day time) for the Summer.

We then asked for volunteers that would be happy to lead a walk at a beach local to them to make it as accessible to as many members as possible.

We had 24 fantastic volunteers come forward for the locations below covering England, Scotland, Wales and N Ireland! These included a special Beards NOT at the Beach in Cumbria as the nearest beach was a long drive but they wanted to take part. Unfortunately due to the Blackpool Marathon and issues with parking the Blackpool Walk had to be cancelled, though we did manage to direct people to the next nearest which was Southport.

Further into the organisation process we thought that it would be a bonus to collect donations for Schnauzers in Need at DBARC as they have had so many financial pressures recently with most of their Schnauzers needing eye surgery and then there was Lara and her 10 pups! So that’s what we did!

A walk primarily for fun but accepting donations for a worthy cause at the same time.

Many of the walk leaders embraced this and also worked hard to supply refreshments – cakes, afternoon teas, dog treats and some held an impromptu raffle and sold fridge magnets to raise extra money.

The weekend before the walk the weather was fantastic but as the week went on the weather took a turn for the worse and Saturday was disgusting! However, thankfully the weather on Sunday turned out to be ok for some and lovely for others.

On the day of the walk I was poorly and had a family bereavement so I was unable to attend a walk myself. I was absolutely gutted but through the day saw hundreds of pictures and comments coming in from participants of the walks across the country having a fantastic time! There are a collection of photos from some of the walks at the end of this post.

This lifted my spirits so much.

Donations are still coming in, but we have a provisional figure for the amount raised by BOB 2019….

£3,443

The feedback from the walks has been great and for many this was their first ever group Schnauzer walk. Here are just a few of the lovely experiences had of the day…..