Family Welfare Association

Wheelers had a thoroughly enjoyable and successful day supporting the Family Welfare Association in Tower Hamlets (FWA www.fwa.org.uk) with their Cycling Fun Day held in Victoria Park. Although fairly breezy it was a gloriously sunny autumn afternoon which helped the FWA get a great turn out of over 20 children and several parents who are clients of the FWA.

The event was aimed at getting children to learn and improve on their bike skills and of course to have fun! Cycle Training (www.cycletraining.co.uk) was hired for the afternoon to provide tuition, holding sessions ranging from the basics of "how to ride a bike" to "improving bike handling". They helpfully brought along bicycles for those who didn't have one.

For those that did have their own bikes, Wheelers ran a Dr Bike to give their machines a check over and some fine tuning. Wheelers also setup an obstacle course to test out those newly learnt skills! Many of the children found the course difficult to start with but they soon got to grips with it. Most ended up able to weave themselves around the course without having to put their feet down - it was great to see!

To further test their balancing skills the children also took part in "slow bicycle" races: whoever demonstrates their excellent balance and co-ordination skills by crossing the line last without putting their foot down is the winner. Most participants, however, chose to ignore the slow part of the race...

Lots of energy was burned up, especially when Wheeler Alexis lead a ride around the park, and the FWA had got lots of goodies donated by Cycle Surgery (www.cyclesurgery.com) to give out to everyone at the end of the day.

Photographers from East End Life and the East London Advertiser turned up to snap pictures of the children, who were excited that their picture might be in the paper.

A splendid time was had by all in the company of a really friendly bunch of people. Again the council was generous in its financial support. Wheelers will definitely be keeping in contact with the FWA; such joint events have got to be good for getting children enjoying cycling at an early age.

Thanks to Wheelers happy helpers: Alexis, Caroline, Dave, Keith, Alix and Owen.

Event press coverage

chicane action

up and over the plank

successfully negotiating the roundabout

another problem gets dealt with by Keith

everyone huddles round as Alix and Caroline security mark bikes

[Photos by Owen Pearson]