What charities can learn from the Lockdown Laps Coronacoaster

Hello, my friends. I'm writing this during week six (I think) of lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. How are you doing? (**pauses to listen to answer**) How am I? Thanks for asking. Well, apart from having imaginary conversations with my blog readers, I'm safe and well, thanks, but somewhat emotionally turbulent. I read this fluctuation described yesterday as "riding the coronacoaster" and think that's particularly apt. Today is a good day, though. But don't worry. This isn't going to be yet another blog on how to cope with the pandemic. It's actually about income generation in response to crisis. But one of the reasons for my emotional ups and downs is at the heart of it, which is why I began there. You see, anybody who knows me - or has read a portion of my writing and social media "output" - will know how important parkrun is to me. I've written about it here ("Part of who I am!"), here ("This is one of my taps!") and here (Running, volunteering, and my sense of place), for example. For me, parkrun has been a particular source of joy. It's been great for my physical as well as mental health, it has given this hyper-social extrovert ("hello!") a weekly social fix, and it's helped me to feel rooted in my community (St Albans parkrun). But of course, like practically everything else, parkrun events stopped at the end of March. On most Saturdays, I'll know 100+ people if I go to my local parkrun. In the last six weeks, I can count the number of people