Firstly a BIG – THANK YOU – for making our seventh Easter Egg Run the biggest yet.
The weather was perfect and thanks to the five hundred and thirty (530) of you, with internet access, who took the time to pre-register on our website. It made it much easier for ourselves (and hopefully for you) at the start and we will also now be able to keep you informed via email as to ‘What’s Happening in the BikeWise ‘world’ in future.
A fantastic mix of riders on the day, with quite a few new ‘L’ riders joining in the ‘fun’ as well as some nice trike’s.
Some riders put some quite serious mileage in, to get to Durham for the ride and we really appreciate your support.
We’ve raised £982 for the Meningitis Research Foundation which is well up on the £780 raised last year and is a testament to the generosity of YOU – the bikers involved quite apart from the hundreds of Easter Eggs handed in, which we will distribute in the coming week.
A mention should be made of the staff at the Northern Rock in Bishop Auckland who raised £80 and have raised a substantial sum every year, so special thanks must go to them.
In addition, it was fantastic to see so many people ‘camped out’ at the side of the road to cheer and wave to riders on many with deck chairs in place, clearly set up to enjoy the spectacle! In addition the Union jack flags were in evidence no doubt fuelled by the impending Royal wedding but it all added to the party atmosphere.
It’s great that the Easter Egg Run is becoming a social event not only for the motorcycle community, but also for the people of County Durham and Darlington who come out in force to cheer us on our way.
We were joined at HQ by as many as we could accommodate and riders were given a short road safety presentation by Sgt Iain Rodgers of the Durham Police Motorcycle Section, who invited riders to sign up to BikeWise Training and Durham Advanced Motorcyclists to enhance their riding skills.
The Easter Egg Run is organised by the BikeWise team, but we couldn’t do it without the support of the Cleveland Bike Section, Durham Advanced Motorcyclists, Durham County Council (particularly Donald Waller), Darlington based stunt rider Dave Coates, all the volunteers who help prepare police HQ and serve the teas and coffees, Tesco in Durham; who donated eggs and games and of course our own Chief Constable Jon Stoddart and the executive team of Durham Constabulary who have always supported the aims of BikeWise.
Please keep checking the website for photo’s and video’s of the event – we are working ‘feverishly in the background to get these uploaded onto the internet but it will take time and we cannot go any faster than our bandwidth allows !!
But the biggest thank you is to those of you who took part; your generosity is beyond doubt and without you none of this would happen, so once again - thank you all you all for your support and look forward to seeing you at BikeWise 2011 on Sunday 24th July at the Police HQ.