Hello. I am organising and taking part in a fundraising \"banger\" car run over the Easter weekend this year and wondering if any of your members might be interested in taking part. The plan is to take in the 3 highest points by public road in England, Scotland and Wales. We will be fundraising for the Royal Air Forces Association Wings Appeal. The association provides welfare support and other assistance such as respite care homes mainly to former RAF servicemen and women who have found themselves in difficulty or due to ill health and old age etc.
The event is open to anyone in any sort of banger type vehicle, of reasonably low value (up to £400 approx would be ideal but happy to be a bit flexible). They can be decorated in any way imaginable and should carry some form of advertising for the RAF Association. It is possible that I will be able to provide the official logo stickers from the association. There will be a prize for the \"best dressed\" banger! Needless to say all vehicles must be road legal with tax, insurance and MOT etc. Each vehicle should have at least 2 people who can drive. All crews will be responsible for their own fuel, accommodation and food costs on the trip. The overnight accommodation will either be campsites (using our own tents) or Travelodge / Premierinn etc.
A rough guide to the costs involved would be: Overnight campsites approx £16 per pitch per night. If we use Travelodge or Premierinn etc the rooms are from £30 upwards. That said I will be looking for the best price available for everyone taking part. People can try to get sponsored for some or all of the costs if perhaps a company is willing to provide some funding in return for the company name being displayed on the car. Participants can also ask for donations from friends or family etc. The banger car can be used to fundraise with, subject to permission from land owners etc.
Here is a rough itinerary of the trip:
Thursday 5th April 2012. Cars from the South West area will travel up to Cosford near Wolverhampton, arriving mid evening (accommodation to be confirmed). If there are enough people we could have a pre event \"meet and greet\" in a local pub etc.
Friday 6th April (Good Friday). Cars and crews will meet up at the RAF Museum at Cosford around 8.30am. A bit of pre run admin etc and we will depart around 9.30am. First stop will be the highest point in Wales at Bwlch Y Groes in Snowdonia before heading to Wrexham to carry out some fundraising for a few hours. We will then get on our way again and head up to Carlisle for an overnight stop (camp site or Travelodge etc, to be confirmed). We should arrive there early to mid evening.
Saturday 7th April. We depart for Glasgow around 8.30am. Fundraising for a few hours when we get there then heading up to the Cairnwell Pass (Glenshee area) for Scotlands highest road. We will then head south and overnight stop in Edinburgh (accommodation to be confirmed).
Sunday 8th April. Leave Edinburgh around 9am and head down to Morpeth in Northumbria. Fundraising for a couple of hours with a possible lunch stop at the Morpeth RAFA club. We then head to Englands highest road at Killhope Cross (A66 Cornriggs area). That will be the official end of the run and people can then start to head home or elsewhere on the route south of course!
I am happy for you to forward this e mail and my phone numbers onto anyone else you think may have an interest in taking part. Having done a run last year to Barcelona fundraising for Help for Heroes, I can tell you we had a fantastic time. 24 cars and around 70 people enjoyed some great driving and a great social scene too! Hopefully we can do something similar on this run!
Hope to hear back from you soon.
Best regards
Steve Colhoun
Vice Chairman
Torquay branch Royal Air Forces Association
Tel 07899 964241 or 01803 317660(evenings)
The Royal Air Forces Association is a registered charity number 226686.