Martin Parnell, Cochrane’s very own “Marathon Man”, will be creating quite the racquet this month in Fredericton, N.B.
Parnell will be playing 24 straight hours of tennis as part of his ongoing Quest for Kids, raising money for Right to Play.
Parnell said he is a big tennis fan and always enjoyed playing it as a kid in England, although he said he has never played it for a full day straight.
As far as how Parnell will be able to do it, that ball is still up in the air.
“I’ve got no idea. I just take this stuff on. It’s just the way my mind works,” said Parnell with a laugh. “I love tennis and I’ve also done endurance or running events of over 24 hours. I thought, heck, give it a go. My whole attitude with all of the quests I’ve done is there has got to be a 50-50 chance of failure. There has got to be the unknown.”
Parnell said the unknown includes not knowing how his shoulders will endure for all 24 hours or if he’ll get some tennis elbow during the challenge.
“We’re going to give it a go, have some fun and get the kids out for a fun event,” he said.
The tennis marathon will begin at 6 p.m. Dec. 3 and end at 6 p.m. Dec. 4. Parnell said the idea is that companies are sponsoring an hour of time for $1,000 each and they are trying to raise a total of $25,000 for Right to Play.
Parnell explained that these companies would actually be sponsoring a school as part of the event and kids from the school would be playing against him. He said it would be a little untraditional in that he would be playing singles, doubles and there may be as many as six kids on the court at a time.
Parnell will get a five-minute break at the end of each hour and said he would take in a hydration drink as well as some food to keep him going.
As of Nov. 28, almost every hour had been sponsored, except a gap between midnight and 6 a.m.
The premier of New Brunswick, Brian Gallant, will be kicking off the event by playing the first hour against Parnell, which he described as a huge plus from an awareness point of view.
Parnell has been doing a series of 10 quests over five years, with the goal of raising $1 million for the organization Right to Play and helping 20,000 disadvantaged children.
He recently finished his 10th quest where he attempt to set 10 Guinness World Records at 10 universities across Canada from Sept. 19 until Oct. 14.
This Dec. 31 will mark five years, and so far he has raised just over $660,000.
“I can see the finish line,” said Parnell. “We’re trying to raise a million so we need to keep plugging away here.”
For the last month, Parnell said he has been encouraging people to make this the 11th quest, where everyone chips in and does their own mini quests.
Parnell said the University of Calgary did a bottle drive and raised $1,000, a group in Redwood Meadows raised $2,000 at a Christmas fair and local schools have been holding bake sales.
Parnell will have the tennis marathon and his fifth and final annual run and walk at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre Dec. 31 as part of his 11th quest.
For more information or to donate visit canadaquestforkids.com.
