Local Charity – ESSW Charitable Trust – has attracted national interest in support of its fundraising efforts.
The Charity, which runs a series of events and activities across the year, has been allocated 3 spaces in the prestigious Ride London event which takes place later this year. RideLondon is the world’s greatest festival of cycling. At its heart is the RideLondon-Essex 100 challenge, where participants ride 100 miles on traffic-free roads through the heart of London and neighbouring Essex before finishing to rapturous applause at Tower Bridge.
Once the 3 spaces were allocated, the Charity put out a call for riders to enter and raise sponsorship and the call was answered by keen cyclists from Worcester and Gloucester.
Rebecca Widdowson, Managing Partner, from Hallmark Whatley Hulme Solicitors, based in Worcester, was the first person to get in touch.
‘It’s great to be able to take part in this event which was on my bucket list but also raise funds to be used in Ukraine’ said Rebecca ‘we’ve already received pledges of £2000 in sponsorship, but will work to raise as much as we possibly can – if any local (Torbay) solicitors wanted to sponsor me, I am sure it would be most welcome too’
Rebecca will be riding with a friend, and a third rider, Rhys Williams from Gloucester, will be joining the challenge.
‘We were delighted to see that our message and profile is being recognised further afield, to have this support and the potential sponsorship funds our three riders will attract will make a huge difference to our fundraising this year’ said Ian Coulton, Chair of Trustees for ESSW Charitable Trust ‘as with all businesses, the pandemic had a negative effect on our activities, but now we are back in action and are looking forward to more and more events’
The charity which raises funds for children caught up in humanitarian crises overseas – with its focus now on Ukraine – was established in 2018 by Ian, a local PE teacher, and his colleagues, Matt Easton and Gill Portman. The three are all volunteers and work tirelessly to put on events and find innovative ways to raise funds.
The recent charity auction held at the Palace Theatre raised over £4,000; and now with the riders pledging £2000, the charity’s fundraising is going from strength to strength.
‘we run small and large events, our charity auction was a great success, we now have 3 pig racing nights, which are not to be missed, and a charity concert in September when Katrina from Katrina and the Waves will perform at the Palace Theatre’ added Ian.
Find out more about the charity and its events, visit their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ESSWCharitableTrustUK.
