Tower Hamlets Wheelers
NEWS RELEASE 28 October 2002
For immediate release
Ref THW11afterFWAevent281002
Day of bicycle fun for kids in Victoria Park
The Tower Hamlets Wheelers (1) and the Family Welfare Association -FWA- (2)
teamed up for a day of bicycle fun for children and adults in Victoria Park
on Saturday 26th October. The event aimed to get children to learn and
improve on their bike skills, to have fun and be inspired to cycle!
Around 25 children and several parents who are clients of the FWA attended
the event which held bike riding lessons, an obstacle course, a 'Dr Bike'
fixing service, slow bicycle races and a trip round the park. Cycling
goodies were donated by bike shops Cycle Surgery in Spitalfields (3) and
Bicycle Magic in Whitechapel (4).
London company Cycle Training (5) brought along bicycles for those who
didn't have one and held sessions ranging from the basics of "how to ride a
bike" to "improve your bike handling and co-ordination skills".
Wheelers ran a 'Dr Bike' fixing service to give bikes that belonged to the
children a check over and some fine tuning. The Wheelers also set up 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," said Owen Pearson, Wheelers co-ordinator. "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.
"It was really satisfying to see nearly all of the children who could not
ride a bike at all at the start of the afternoon take part competently on
the obstacle course and slow races just a few hours later," said Patrick
Lonergan at the FWA who organised the event.
The more energetic children were led on a big ride round Victoria Park later
on when skills had been finely tuned. "It turned out to be a gloriously
sunny and breezy fresh autumn afternoon - ideal for cycling round the park,"
said Wheeler Alexis who led the ride. "Some of them cycled much faster than
me - it was hard to keep up!" she continued.
The Wheelers and the FWA will be keeping in touch to organise similar events
in the future.
The FWA would like to thank Lyndal Peters at Tower Hamlets Council for
organising some financial support for the event (6) and for the Wheelers
volunteers and children's parents who helped out on the day.
ENDS
More info:
FWA - Patrick Lonergan 020 7364 3489
Tower Hamlets Wheelers - Alix Stredwick 07712 471411 (home 020 8880 6873)
Notes
(1) The Tower Hamlets Wheelers is the local cycle action group in the east
London Borough of Tower Hamlets, campaigning for better cycling facilities
and encouraging more people to cycle for health, the environment and for
London. The Wheelers are affiliated to the London Cycling Campaign, the
largest urban cycling campaign in the world.
(2) The Family Welfare Association (FWA) is based in Whitechapel and works
with socially excluded families, mainly Bangladeshi and Somalian, in Tower
Hamlets. http://www.fwa.org.uk/
(3) Cycle Surgery have five shops in London, one in Spitalfields E1 tel 020
7375 3088 http://www.cyclesurgery.com/
(4) Bicycle Magic have two shops in London, one in Whitechapel E1 tel 020
7375 2993 http://www.bicyclemagic.com/
(5) Cycle Training are a London company who provide one-to-one and group
lessons on everything from learning to ride from scratch (even for adults)
to cycling safely in traffic and bicycle maintenance classes. They will send
trainers out wherever their clients are based within greater London. tel 020
7564 5990 info@cycletraining.co.uk http://www.cycletraining.co.uk They
also have a branch in Sussex tel 01273 729979 southeast@cycletraining.co.uk
(6) Lyndal Peters has Cycling Officer responsibilities in the Traffic and
Transportation department of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
(7) More pictures can be found at
http://www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk/fwa/fwa02.html - please contact Owen
Pearson owen@towerhamletswheelers.org.uk 07903 018970 and he will email you
printing quality pictures.
Tower Hamlets Wheelers
wheelers@towerhamletswheelers.org.uk
www.towerhamletswheelers.org.uk
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