Like all organizations there would be challenges and this saw the birth of a sister Club in the area with a few members leaving; however this did little to rock the steady Falcons ship and on the contrary it made it stronger with wider administrative participation from a range of experienced and committed members. While the club members participated in road races throughout the province and country, we continued with the tradition of hosting numerous successful road races in Verulam, Durban and Pietermaritzburg which made it possible for us to entrench the Verulam Checkout Falcons name both provincially and nationally. As part of our social responsibility programme we made it our duty to always share a part of our proceeds, from races and other fund raising efforts, with the Verulam Hospice, and the Verulam Blind Society. The Venkpac 15km challenge was hosted by the club as a special effort for the Verulam Day and Frail care centre
Look at Our Story
The Club was formed in a backdrop of several Verulam based Comrades runners who were running for neighbouring Clubs and yet training together in the locality. This served has a coagulant with like-minded runners forming the Club with a local flavor. Within a short space of time all local runners ran under the same banner in Verulam. The early years saw the Club having several Fun Runs to create awareness on a leading a healthy lifestyle and participating in road running and walking.
Various schools participated in these events and the Club gained popularity as more members joined and the Club at the same time having a band of Comrades Marathon runners. The Spar ladies race breakfast was launched in these early years as a Club marketing strategy and this over the years got extremely popular with some current members having entered the Falcons Family fold via that medium.
Partnering
with Sponsors
The critical turning point for Verulam Falcons was the partnership with the private sector when it had partnered with Verulam Gateway in not only organizing the hugely successful Gateway 27km and 15km Challenges; but the subsequent naming and branding rights engaged with the sponsor. Between the years 2001 to 2003 the Club had adopted the name Gateway in it and was called Verulam Gateway Falcons, resulting in the change of club colours from blue, red and white to green, red and white. The Club was now making a statement in its infancy that partnering with business was a key to longevity and financial support. With the sponsor changing hands the Club was privileged to be a beneficiary of the new owners which was the Checkout Group in 2004. The Club also changed its colours and the running gear now had a black, red and white checked look. We were easily noticeable at road races as our checked look was making a statement. There was no turning back and till 2017 we are still in this marriage with the Checkout Group.
We organized road races annually which not only popularized the sponsors brand but we in essence were entrenching Checkout Verulam Falcons Athletic Club as a brand and a well-oiled organization in the province. Over the years there have been several other sponsor-club partnerships and it is safe to say that the Falcons-Checkout partnership is the longest provincially.
