I think we are all by now very familiar with the financial impact the ongoing pandemic has on the world around us. What came as a bit of a surprise to me is the severity of the financial impact on our schools! Schools rely heavily on fundraising activities throughout the year to bolster finances used for a variety of curriculum enhancement activities. The world’s current ongoing battle with Covid-19 has made these fundraising activities impossible and as a result my family and I have set ourselves a challenge to raise funds in support of our local primary school, Hillcross.

THE CHALLENGE

We are going to do a virtual cycle tour from John O’Groats to Lands End during the months of October and November. It is a total distance of 1407kms or 874 miles. We are aiming to raise one Pound for every kilometre pedalled, but it would obviously be great if we could raise more!

MEET THE TEAM

Team Captain – Oliver van Graan - Oliver is 6 years old and a year 2 student at Hillcross. Unlike in school, he will have a lot to say about our challenge and will follow progress very closely, reminding everybody in no uncertain terms how are we doing against our targets! Not sure how many kilometres he will be contributing to the challenge but he will bring the motivation and a few laughs along the way!

Vice-Captain – Luke van Graan - Luke is 10 years old and a year 5 student at Hillcross. We can bank on Luke with his quiet determination to contribute a significant percentage of our target kilometres without any fuss (as long as we keep him fed and hide the chocolates away!).

Dark Horse – Jonno van Graan - Jonno is 11 years old and is an ex-student of Hillcross. Now that he is in high school and nearly an adult, according to him, he might have a few things to say about raising funds for his old school but believe you me, if he gets stuck in we’ll see a decent number of kilometres coming from his legs!

The Rose Amongst the Thorns – Susan (Su) van Graan - Age is but a number for ladies over 25! In Su you can expect a complete combination of the above three contributions, she’ll bring Oli’s verbal motivation, Luke’s quiet determination and Jonno’s single mindedness in achieving our goal, all with a touch of class and some bubbly at the end!

Team Mascot – Harry the Dog – Harry is a two year old Cockapoo and unfortunately will not be contributing a single km during the next two months but I’m sure he’ll make himself very comfortable on the couch whilst his humans get stuck in!

The Work Horse – Stof (Chris for some) van Graan – What can I say, I think I’ll be spending many hours on the bike during the next two months!

We’ll provide all donors with regular updates on our progress and hopefully we can also provide some ‘interesting’ snippets of our time on the virtual road! Thank you for taking the time to read our story and please donate by following the Just Giving details.