Our Yorkshire Warriors Sponsored rideout to York Racecourse (Knavesmire), in aid of The Yorkshire Regiment Charitable Trust (1114624) was held on Sunday 10th July. Forty two of us met at the Grey Horse on twenty seven bikes, four trikes and a smattering of cars. In addition to Wakefield MAG members, who turned out in force, it was also great to welcome along members of the Barnsley Bikers Club, and several ex-forces personnel and Royal British Legion Riders Club members. Following our obligatory team photo, we set off for Squires at just after 10:00.
We took a fairly boring route (A642 & A63) to Squires, as with that big a group, we would have almost certainly have got separated had we taken a more scenic route. We arrived at Squires for around 10:40. Time for a quick cup of tea / coffee, then we had a donations whip-round for those riders without sponsorship. We also took the opportunity to sell a few Yorkshire Heroes support bands for a pound each.
Once we had rounded up everyone who was there to meet the run at Squires, we set off at 11:15, again taking the very boring route of the A162 into Tadcaster and picking up the A64 towards York, then the A1036 towards the Racecourse. We had a brief stop on Knavesmire to collect a few stragglers we had lost coming into York.
We then led the huge convoy of bikes, trikes and cars into the Racecourse exhibition centre where we were met by Captain Trevor Edgar, representing the charity, together with four uniformed Yorkshire Regiment soldiers.
Lots of photo opportunities and a chat to the soldiers, then it was time for the official handover of the cheque (£850) and the donations received that day, which also included an amount from all the support band sales over the previous weeks (£314.77). In total, £1164.77 was handed over to the charity on the day, which doesn't include a further £100 donated via Just Giving, which goes directly to the charity.
Trevor gave us all a talk about the charities work, and the good use the donations will be put to.
The Yorkshire Regiment Charitable Trust provides support and financial aid to current & ex-servicemen and their families, who are in need by virtue of sickness, poor health or financial hardship. Of course, a good proportion of the charities work at the moment is for injuries sustained by soldiers in active combat in Afghanistan. Two thousand soldiers from our County, serving in our County Regiment, will be stationed and fighting in Afghanistan over the next 15 Months. The Yorkshire Regiment has three Regular Battalions and one TA Reserve Battalion. They are:
Throughout the period, the Battalions will be reinforced by 4 YORKS, who are the County Territorial Army Battalion and several hundred of the reserve force will work and fight alongside their regular counterparts in Afghanistan.
Time then for lots more photo opportunities, for the official army press release(s).
We then made our separate ways home, most of us getting thoroughly soaked in the downpour, but at least it had remained dry for the ride into York and the donation handover.
A massive thanks to everyone who supported the rideout, donated monies themsleves, and who persuaded friends, family and work colleagues to sponsor us. A special mention has to go to Steve 'Jagster' Jagger, who showed exceptional abilities at persuading his work colleagues to part with their brass !!!!
More good news is that the HSBC Staff Charity Scheme will be donating a further £500 to the charity, taking our total raised to £1764.77. Hopefully there may be some more to come in too, when other outstanding sponsorship gets paid and through wrist band sales. The Just Giving page is also still open so it is still not too late to donate: www.justgiving.com/Sponsored-Rideout-2011
If you are worried that these donations have reduced the amount we are raising as a group for the MAG Fighting Fund, fear not !!! All the sponsorship and donations for this charity are from completely different sources, and have not impacted our sizeable MAG fund raising efforts one bit !!! Who says you cant have your cake and eat it !!!!