The annual Warwickshire and Coventry Historic Churches Trust’s ‘Ride and Stride‘ will be taking place this year on September 12th.
It’s a great opportunity to get out, visit some churches either on your bike, legs, horses, spacehoppers, scooters, or whatever, get some fresh air and exercise whilst raising money for a good cause – your own church, and other churches in the county. Pretty nifty, hey!
In light of current events, this year’s Ride and Stride will be a little different as we are not encouraging churches to be open to greet riders and striders unless they want to. The event will be a socially distanced one and fully within Covid-19 guidelines and regulations.
Any participant (either cycling, walking, running or whatever) can ask people to sponsor them with half the money raised going towards a church of their choice and the other half coming to the Trust to enable us to continue providing grants for churches to support their repair and maintenance projects.
We are therefore encouraging churches to help us find riders and striders to make this year’s event a success, despite the limitations we are all facing at the moment.
Participants are being encouraged to use Virgin Money online (an individual can set up their own page or make a simple one-off donation at Virgin Money Giving) or they can use traditional sponsorship and registration forms and make a payment to us by cheque.
Here is the link to information, including Covid-19 advice, that Riders and Striders will need: I want to Ride or Stride
Participants can choose their own rides and walks and do it all at their own pace or, if it’s easier, we have some walking and cycling routes on our website.
This year we have a prize for the church that raises the most money as a team, and also for the church of the individual who raises the most money. Money aside, it’s also a great way to get out and about and exercise whilst supporting church repairs all over the county.
Please feel free to pass this information to anyone who is a keen walker or cyclist – it’s a lovely way to spend a Saturday. The next thing we’ll need is good weather, but we’ll have to leave that in the hands of the Big Man!
And of course, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch!
With thanks from myself and the rest of the Trust for your support.
Claire Strachan, Trustee
