As part of this event, Europa are donating to Rutland Blood Bikes, a volunteer based charity that supports local health organizations in Leicestershire and Rutland.
Leicestershire & Rutland Blood Bikes are a charitable based organisation aiming to transport blood, plasma, platelets, samples, vaccines and other urgently required medical items for our hospitals – every night, and at weekends and bank holidays. Their team are all volunteers and the service they offer to our hospitals is free of charge to them. Based on the successful blood bike model and are part of NABB; National Association of Blood Bikes. (The information taken from their official website).
These charities are close to Lou's heart and they've been doing this event since 2015! Lou Sim, our Dispatch Operative, has worked for Europa for more than 4 years.
The ladies that organise the events Nimi and Sherrie have been close friends to Lou for over 10 years now. They first approached her all about hosting a record attempt in 2015 that was going to be held at the Ace Cafe and asked if she would interested in helping out. Of course, she said yes and the rest is history.
To prepare for the event Lou was sharing as much information about the event on all social media platforms as she can, both our personal and any groups she found. Europa populated in the weekly employee newsletter for more than 3 weeks before the event. Lou’s close friends prepare bag up the goodie bags that were available at the event. They are a small group of like-minded people that class each other as family so they had a lot of fun.
“The reason to keep doing this is for the charities we support both the air ambulance and blood bikers are close to my heart. All my friends lost somebody and I was a huge supporter of the East Anglia Air ambulance, Chels was also a part of the original group that worked the first record. For me I carry on to keep her memory alive and support the air ambulance and blood biker's as much as possible. It hit us all hard when we found out about Chels it really was like we lost a little sister."
“Another reason is to break past stereotypes about clothing for women. And show the clothing manufacturers that there are a lot more of us women that have our own bike's than they think, and that we don't want PINK all over our leathers! The idea is to try and get a decent range of clothing and helmets that aren't pink or full of flowers.
Yes, our team includes many people who are not riders. We have people who help us with fundraising and publicity activities etc. Fundraising is a really important part of what we do as without the funds we wouldn’t be able to keep running. If you have a talent or skill you think could be of benefit to us, or can spare a few hours a month to help us fund raise please let us know.
The ladies had a fantastic outcome, with 1549 amazing women riding through!
Just from the raffle tickets, key rings, lanyards and stickers the event raised an impressive £9000! The event team needs to work on all the donations from companies and hopes to have the final amount soon to share. Well done!
If you would like to find out more about fundraising Leicestershire & Rutland Blood Bikes please contact them via fundraising@lrbloodbikes.org.uk
Check upcoming events on their official Facebook page.
Europa likes to help those that need a little more support, and that’s why our employees participate in charity fundraisers all year round.
Find out more on our website.
