Story

On Saturday May 28th Dean Wilding, John Powell and Will Hartley (all members of Lifegroup Central at SPH) will be attempting to cycle 221 miles to raise money for Stretch 21 - a building project at St Paul's Church in Hammersmith.  We will start our cycle ride at St Paul's Hammersmith at 09:00 on Saturday morning, and cycle through the night and aim to finish sometime Sunday morning!  Our route will take us through Buckinghamshire to Oxford, then head south via Wantage to Newbury.  After taking in some of the scenery of the West Berkshire countryside we will then pass through Reading, Maidenhead and Slough as we return to London.  Back in London we will finally do some sightseeing of the capital's most famous landmarks until we reach our goal of 221 miles back at St Paul's in Hammersmith! So...What is Stretch 21? The purpose of the Stretch 21 building project is to enable St Paul's Church to continue to grow in its development of expanding community initiatives and make the church more open and accessible to its surrounding communities. Examples of growing community initiatives include the charity SPEAR and the Debt Advice centre. SPEAR provides training for 16- 24 year olds out of employment to help them into work, and the Debt Advice Centre provides free support to help individuals with debt problems.  The total cost of the new building is 5.4 million pounds, with over 4 million pounds already raised. However much generosity is required in order to raise the remaining money and the Stretch 221 Cycle Challenge is one of a multitude of fund raising initiatives organised by St Paul's Hammersmith congregation members. To read more about Stretch 21 please take a look at the following web page: 'For more information about the Stretch 21 vision please follow the following link, <a href="http://www.sph.org/DiaryNews/Stretch21BuildingProject/tabid/197/Default.aspx">http://www.sph.org/DiaryNews/Stretch21BuildingProject/tabid/197/Default.aspx</a> Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.