We did it!
A team of 45 cyclists completed this 48 mile cycling challenge from Guildford in Surrey to our warehouse in Camberwell raising nearly £10,000 in the process.
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On your marks.... |
The beautiful route left the lovely Stoke Park in Guildford and wound through some stunning Surrey countryside and provided some huge challenges on the way up the Surrey Hills! Winding through Esher and Cobham, then on through Hampton Court and Bushy Park to Kingston and Richmond Park, then into Camberwell via Brixton, we pedalled for up to five hours each to raise around £10,000 for Book Aid International to send around 5,000 books to schools, libraries and more in sub-Saharan Africa.
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The Wiley Wheelers |
Teams included eleven enthusiastic souls from the Wiley Wheelers, a super keen fundraising team of seven from Orion, and other energetic superstars from Bloomsbury, A&C Black and Summersdale, joined by sustainability organisation IIED. Added to that were the Book Aid Bicycle Club and a large contingent of individual friends and contacts who threw their hearts and souls – and legs! – into the challenge.
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The Surrey Hills start.... |
Jacqui Scott, Head of Fundraising & Communications at Book Aid International, was one of the Book Aid Bicycle Club, a group of staff and former staff who also took up the challenge of the ride. Jacqui says: “I was lucky enough to be in Malawi a few years ago, and when there met some women who were using one of the reading clubs we had set up with the library service there. Many of those women walked an hour and a half each way to borrow two books to take home to read each week. They walked with their children on their backs, and wood or water on their heads: the sterling efforts of this hugely energetic group of cyclists really pays tribute to those women.”
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The Book Aid Bicycle Club, after the ride |
There is still time to sponsor the Book Aid Bicylce Club - and by doing it now, you do it in the knowledge that every team member completed the challenge! Click here to donate directly through our justgiving page.
With thanks to Weesleekit Design.