Tag: Oaklands School

Hello, goodbye!

Crewe Toll’s cycling fire-fighters called in on a flying visit to Oaklands School this afternoon. The guys from White Watch are on the homeward leg of their Land’s End to John o’ Groats charity cycle challenge, and they stopped off at the Ferry Road school to present a cheque for £8000.

The cyclists were welcomed by Oaklands staff and pupils and colleagues from Crewe Toll also dropped in to Oaklands to cheer their mates on.

Oaklands Head Teacher Maureen Mathieson said: “This makes a huge difference and we are so grateful to the Crewe Toll team for making this tremendous effort for us. We’d also like to thank everyone who sponsored the fire-fighters. The money raised enables us to buy specially built cycles for the Oaklands children to enjoy. It’s terrific!”

The team are well on schedule to complete North Quest, their thousand mile challenge – averaging a hundred miles a day – and there was just time to present the cheque, enjoy a cuppa and get back in the saddle for the next stage.

Despite the aches, pains, chafing and sprains the Crewe Toll lads expect to complete their epic ride in three days time, and have set their sights on making another target – enjoying a pint in Inverness before closing time on Saturday!  Well done, lads – you deserve it!

Local firefighters get on their bikes for Oaklands

A team of local firefighters will set out to cycle the length of the country to raise funds for Oaklands School this week. The officers from Crewe Toll’s White Watch plan to pedal from Lands End to John o’ Groats – a distance of 845 miles – over nine gruelling days.

The firefighters hope their efforts will raise enough sponsorship money to purchase at least one specialised Petra Running Bike, which give children a totally new experience of freedom when they use them, for the school.

David Dourley, who was White Watch commander, explained: “We have a team of ten cyclists, plus two support drivers who are retired colleagues, and we set off down south on Thursday. We decided to support Oaklands because we have a very good working relationship with the school – being on Ferry Road it’s very close to the Fire station and we’re regular visitors. Some of the children and young people at Oaklands have severe and complex additional support needs and we know the staff do a really fantastic job here. When we heard Oaklands needed support to raise money for these amazing bikes we were delighted to offer our services. I hope we’re all still feeling the same way after the trip!’

Colleague Ali McKay added: ‘We’ve got all levels of experience in the team – some guys cycle regularly, while one of our blokes only bought a bike a couple of weeks ago! We’ve been training, but none of us have done anything like this before – eight to ten hours per day for nine days – so it will be a real challenge. It’s for a great cause though and we’re really looking forward to it – honestly!’

Good luck, White Watch. We’ll let you know how the guys get on.