Anne Hayres Jo Southwell

What is 'The Big Ride for The Big Issue'? It is a fund raising ride from London to Paris, July 23-26 2009 covering nearly 400kms, finishing in Paris on the last day of the ride, which is also the last day of the Tour de France. The story of our fund raising project so far.... Jo and I are committed cyclists, commuting to work and enjoying riding on weekends around Melbourne and the many beautiful rural hills, mountains and coastal roads around Victoria. In August 2008, Jo and I were looking for more cycling challenges. Cycling has given us so much in terms of physical and mental health. We both felt that our cycling experiences had given us the belief that anything is achievable if you just stick with it, keep coming back to it. We were looking for more challenges,and there it was, riding London to Paris in a fund raising bike ride with The Big Issue. I had never done any fund raising, it seemed like a great form of personal development - and such a great cause. The sticking point was being Australians. We could not raise money for the UK! We decided to contact BI UK to request that we join them on the ride but raise money for Australian BI. They were delighted to have us along, and happily allowed us to to raise the required money for Big Issue Australia (after paying the cost of the tour operator). We are both so familiar with the Big Issue's great work that we were thrilled to be able to fund raise for such a positive organisation. The slogan - a hand up is not a hand out - is about supporting and empowering people to meet their own goals and find a stable base. The original amount of money required to fund raise was 2600 pounds between us ($5469 at today's exchange rate). After 8 months we have raised $8000. We purposely decided to raise $10,000 because BI is such a great organisation doing such wonderful work to help people turn their lives around. Our money has been raised via a jazz jam, a concert, a cycling trivia night, a hot cross bun drive, donations from friends family and even some strangers who have very kindly believed in our project. We have also had generous sponsorship from 3 excellent businesses - Degani Bakery, Cloth Shop and Schwob's Swiss Bakery (see our sponsors' logos in the photograph section)to create our own cycling jersey which we will wear on our commutes and of course on the ride from London to Paris. The jersey is in the final stages of completion and will be posted on the website soon. I can say it is very beautiful and very Australian (but no Kangaroos!). There have been so many excellent local community businesses who have supported out project. It is heart warming to know that there is such good feeling in the community to those who need a hand up. Our next fund raisers are a raffle and a bike ride from Whittlesea to Yea and back to Flowerdale. We are paying all airfares, registration, insurances, equipment and accomodation. The cost of the actual 3 day ride is coming out of the fund raising.