I’m Cyclin’ in the Rain

Just cycling in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face
I bike down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just cyclin’,
Cyclin’ in the rain!

A wet Wednesday April 4th 2012…Milton Country Park was the place to be. The first ever mini Bike Fest took place!

The You Can Bike Too Project Team and supportive volunteers from The You Can Hub, Milton Country Park, Ashfield Bikes and Cycling Projects all came together to show Cambridge and its surrounds what is possible for people of all abilities to achieve on bikes! Outspoken provided a fantastic smoothie maker machine! Stacy and her team provided jewellery made from old bike bits! (Loved the bike tyre mirror!)

The mayor took a ride with the mayoress and a You Can Bike Too team member – now that is travelling in style…bring the bling! The smiles said it all! The bikes whizzed around the circuit! Mud was splattered but no one cared! 74 people rode bikes of all shapes and sizes. Quotes were collected and attached to a ‘Quote Bike’! A consultation was held….results/photos to be posted up soon. All this in the rain…nothing stops the cyclist!

Bicycle cake!

Oh yes and I forgot to mention it was Angela’s birthday! A cake in the shape of a bike wasmade to celebrate these two events happening on the same day! (Thank you Doreen!)
Thanks to all that attended and all who made it such a brill day!

Now it’s time for you to start singin’ and cyclin’ too!

           I’m Cyclin’ in the Rain

Just cycling in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face
I bike down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just cyclin’,
Cyclin’ in the rain!

A wet Wednesday April 4th 2012…Milton Country Park was the place to be. The first ever mini Bike Fest took place!

The You Can Bike Too Project Team and supportive volunteers from The You Can Hub, Milton Country Park, Ashfield Bikes and Cycling Projects all came together to show Cambridge and its surrounds what is possible for people of all abilities to achieve on bikes! Outspoken provided a fantastic smoothie maker machine! Stacy and her team provided jewellery made from old bike bits! (Loved the bike tyre mirror!)

The mayor took a ride with the mayoress and a You Can Bike Too team member – now that is travelling in style…bring the bling! The smiles said it all! The bikes whizzed around the circuit! Mud was splattered but no one cared! 74 people rode bikes of all shapes and sizes. Quotes were collected and attached to a ‘Quote Bike’! A consultation was held….results/photos to be posted up soon. All this in the rain…nothing stops the cyclist!

Bicycle cake!

Oh yes and I forgot to mention it was Angela’s birthday! A cake in the shape of a bike wasmade to celebrate these two events happening on the same day! (Thank you Doreen!)
Thanks to all that attended and all who made it such a brill day!

Now it’s time for you to start singin’ and cyclin’ too!

Gosh, it’s a very exciting time here at The You Can Hub. The You Can Bike Too project team supported by the unstoppable Ruth Brannan have had an amazing response to all of their hard work so far. The team have found that there are people out there who have never ridden a bike, don’t think they can ride a bike, or have ridden a bike in the past and think they’ve forgotten how to! And then there’s the people who just want to have a go at these interesting looking bikes! So how can I get involved, I hear you cry? I can sense your cycling legs itching to get started…

All you need to do is come along to the Bike Bike Day at Milton Country Park on Wednesday 4th April. There will be loads of different bikes to try, and all sorts of bike-related excitement to get involved with. Who knows what you’ll go home with? So come on, give it a try – fun for all the family!

Where have you seen our poster? Get involved with the poster-hunt over on our facebook page.

Thank you to… This event wouldn’t have been possible without our lovely partners, seen on our flyer above – not forgetting Cambridgeshire County Council!

This week looks to be one that gets us going in the right direction! So much to tell you….where do I start?

News on the block

Tokens that have been collected on behalf of ‘You Can Bike Too’ were given in to Cambridge Building Society offices (and Cambridge News offices) by supporters of our fantastic project…the aim being to benefit from ‘Cash For the Community,‘ an idea from the Cambridge News (in partnership with Cambridge Building Society) which was about cutting tokens that were printed daily and given in….however there were 25 projects nominated for a share of £10,000. In total 39,000 tokens were given in for all the projects! So we are going to be allocated £394 which I think is brilliant – but better than the cash is the publicity that this will bring to this project!

So today Aaran (Project Team Volunteer) and I are going to the presentation at the Cambridge News offices in Milton…woooh! A photo opportunity I feel! (Honestly I just can’t help using exclamation marks!)

Instructor Training to take place

Monday and Tuesday – Wheels for All (Cycling Projects) are going to deliver 2 days of instructor training to about 14 people – including myself, the manager of Milton Country Park, a parent, a carer or two, a couple of professionals and 3 or 4 young men with learning difficulties…how cool and inclusive is that?! Thanks to South Cambs Council for paying for this and thanks to Milton Country Park for hosting this training.

Wheels For All Training gives individuals, carers and support staff the confidence to work with adapted cycles for their clients or family member so that all can enjoy the benefits of cycling in a sociable environment.

Once we have these volunteers trained up we edge closer to the day when we see All Ability Cycling take place in Cambridge!

Funding

On Wednesday one of the project team and myself are going to Guildhall in Cambridge to make a presentation to Cycling and Pedestrian Members Steering group ….they are going to decide if the project can have some funding for the next year, with an emphasis of making sure that the project team of people with disabilities are kept in the picture as this project develops. This is an essential requirement…the idea for All Ability cycling project  came from a young man with disabilities and we need to make sure that in our effort to get this off the ground that these amazing volunteers are at the front of this project!

And on the other days I’m off to my ‘day’ job!….my other life! Till next time…

Editor: Update to this post – here’s a photo of Aaran and Ruth collecting their Cambridge Evening News cheque!

Well nearly time to count them up! I had 400 given to me by the social work student Karen!!! Aaran bought his along to project meeting….there has been some real token collecting going on! I had to resist the challenge on Sunday night of rummaging around in people’s blue bins!! (The ones where there may have been Cambridge News with tokens still intact!) I’m also getting lots of messages ….people telling me from far and wide how they are collecting…I feel as though everyone deserves a big pat on the back…..or a chocolate!  So thanks guys!!! I’m sure we should get a little bit of the £10,000?

I seem to have lost a blog in between this one and the last one but no matter! So wheels are turning….The Cambridge News have nominated You Can Bike Too as one of the projects (out of 25 in total) for Cash in the Community! Actually that means that we need people to cut out the tokens that are going to be printed in the paper every day for about one month, then label them “You Can Hub” and take them to the nearest Cambridge Building Society branch. They count up the tokens and we should get a share of £10,000. That would be a BIG help so if you know anybody that reads this paper ask them to cut out the tokens!

The ‘Professionals’ (I always hear that theme music when I say that!) had a meet up at Milton Country Park to talk about how they can support the You Can Bike Too project to move forwards. We had a great turn out – people from local organisations: Councils; Sports Development teams; Sustrans; Cambridge Cycling Campaign; Outspoken bike couriers and trainers; Milton Country Park (which provided the venue for us!); Ability Plus. We also had a representative from national organisation Wheels For All, which has cycling projects all over the country. It was great to get them in all same room talking All Ability Cycling! There were lots of creative ideas and everyone had suggestions of how they could help, from publicising upcoming events to printing flyers, providing lunches, and suggesting contacts. To borrow language from the Do Lectures, all the “little do” actions help the wheels keep turning! Now it’s time for a “big do” from us!

The meeting definitely highlighted the need to think about how we can roll the project out on a practical week to week basis. Do we have membership? I like that idea! Individual membership and possibly corporate membership! Get those Big Boys in!! The local business community could have such fun with these bikes…we’d have the trained up volunteers to support them to have a go.

The Project Team also visited London on Saturday – a benchmarking trip to Victoria Park to see and try All Ability Bikes at Bikeworks in London …and thankfully we weren’t snowed off! Cambridge News met us at the Railway Station to take photographs of the Project Team for a piece in the paper in a couple of weeks – stardom is coming I feel! More details of this visit and pictures to follow!

What a week! Never mind about Blue Monday …We have Cheerful Tuesday – news that a grant applied for last summer was successful! £4000 winging it’s way to buy an adaptive bike! Ker-ching!

Not to mention Wonderful Wednesday! Great Press – a Cambridge News article for all to see! Onwards and upwards! Now we just need to secure £15,000 to run the project for the rest of the year!

Cluzion Music and The You Can Hub are very excited about a partnership that is making an instrument accessible to the local community in Cambridge! Dave McKenny is an expert in the Javanese Gamelan, which is best described as a whole room full of gongs, xylophones and drums… we’re pretty sure you won’t have seen anything like it before! The first event will be on Monday 19th December. Take a look at our Gamelan Workshop Flyer December to find out more. You can also complete and return the Gamelan Booking Form 2011.

Dave is keen to share his expertise with anyone interested in making sound. The You Can Hub is excited because the instrument has to be played as a team – so everyone has to work together! We’re also working together with other organisations to make sure the event is a success. The You Can Hub will be there as facilitators, to support anyone with additional needs and make sure that everyone has a great time! We hope to see you there!

If you missed the Cluzion gig this weekend you missed a real treat. Tiger Blue played a soulful set and looked like they could have kept going all night! Singer Meg impressed all with her beautiful voice, not too mention peacock feathers in her hair. This week there was also a support act giving their first performance! Both bands played a mix of classic covers with a sprinkling of their own compositions.

Cluzion music nights are run by Tony Phillips, with an ethos of encouraging anyone and everyone to enjoy and appreciate music. Tony is great at bringing people in to the sessions and creating a sense of community. Come along to the next one to see if you like the vibe! For full details, check out the Cluzion website.

I’m pretty excited because at the StartChange event a couple of weeks ago Lauren Croll of social enterprise incubator UnLtd was talking about some of their recent projects and mentioned FESTAXI. FESTAXI uses golf buggies to help festival goers get around festival sites. The story of its start up, however, is inspirational; the founder tried to go to Glastonbury with a disabled friend and had to give up because it just wasn’t possible to get around. I can’t find any information about this story on the FESTAXI website, so I can’t verify it, but I think it’s a great idea!

From Lauren’s description, it seems that FESTAXI charges people without mobility problems to use the buggies, and this means that people with mobility problems can use them for free. It would be great to see more of this story on the FESTAXI website!