The
Charity Bike Ride took place on Sat 12 March 2005 and despite mechanical
breakdowns, was a great achievement. The tired but happy convoy of riders
arriving at the Pastoral Centre, the final stop, safe and well.
Fr
Manus would like to thank all who sponsored him as well as all those who
took part from Marshalswick mass centre and the main church.
The Riders Thanks also to the other riders from our Parish - Fern,
Alan, Mark, Matthew, Charlotte, Alex and Peter and from CaFE - David and Jenny.
The pushers At a fully laden weight of 2.5 tons, it sometimes needed help .. so thanks to all of our pushers and pullers - especially Vincent!
A special thanks too to Tim Stevens for his organisation and to Jacquie Fowler for
all her help too.
Sponsorship Please ensure you give your sponsorship to the relevant rider
as soon as possible, so we can tell you how much was raised in total.
Thank you Whether you
baked cakes, made the tea, sold refreshments, cleaned up, took photos, produced
artwork, made music or even cheered on the riders – THANK YOU. You made the
event work.
But WHY ? ... well - two reasons.
1. As a fund raising event - to raise funding to support the continuing
excellent work done on behalf of young Catholics by CaFE (more on CaFE on their own website);
2. What better time for this than coming up to Holy Week - a
display of Christian Unity and solidarity, bring together over twenty other
churches from all over St Albans, also raising money for their own charities.
The route From Marshalswick to London Colney, and with stops at several churches along the route, there were plenty of opportunities
for rider changes, giving between 100 and 200 people in total a chance to
ride the 2.5 ton bike! Click here for route details
Sponsorship, the churches, their charities - how does it work? Each church which took 
part
chose its own charity, and so with nearly twenty churches involved, an equal
number of charities were the benefactors of your
generosity - for details of all the churches and
organisations who took part click here. Many thanks to Renault UK too for their sponsorship of the event
How did it all end ? At around 3.30pm, the bike finally creaked and groaned its way up the drive
of the Pastoral Centre, where riders were greeted with cheers, drinks, food,
and just as importantly an ecumenical praise and thanks service in the Great
Chapel. We asked for comment, but they were all lost for words, and after his four
hour stint on bike, Fr Manus was even struggling to
keep his eyes open!!!
"Come, now is the time to worship"
"Oh, Happy Day"
"Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You are my God"
What next ? As
soon as we work out how much you've helped us to raise, we'll let you know
.... and by the way, if you didn't make a donation at the time, and you'd
still like to, then there's no deadline - we'd be really grateful - you can
contact Tim Stevens 836236 (bike@albanstephen.com) or anyone from CaFE (details on their website).
| Our riders !!!!
Fr Manus
"I'm ready .. bring it on!"
Fern
Just so cool
Alan
Smiling!
Mark
"Why did I agree to this?!"
Matthew
"...Where are the pedals?!?!"
Charlotte & Alex
"Charlotte, think hard! Where did you park the bike?!?!"
David "Hold tight please !!"
Jenny "Sorry, but I just
can't stand up!"
"Pusher" Vincent
"Howay the Lads"
Photo Man Pat
"You're not meant to enjoy it - now SMILE!"
Fr.
Manus & Tim
"Can we sleep now please?"
David Payne,
"Hey guys, I know it's
gruelling, but don't
take it out on me!!"
Now...Photos
So far, we have about one hundred photos, and some video
clips, (even some on-board shots!) but we saw so many cameras on the day,
that there must be much much more!!!.
If you'd be willing to share
these, then we'd love to hear from you - we can work with any format .. prints,
slides, memory sticks, negatives, CDs .. just let us know (photos@albanstephen.com)
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