Whats New!
7th of July 2011
Watchtree Wheelers Nominations for the Olympic Games Torch Bearers
Users of the Watchtree Wheelers Cycle Centre near Carlisle are making their bid for Olympic honour – to carry the 2012 Olympic torch.
The Watchtree Wheelers have a strong connection with the Olympic Team GB as multiple gold winning paralympian cyclist Aileen McGlynn officially opened the 1.5 miles route through the reserve in 2009.
Now four members of the cycling group for disabled and disadvantaged people hope to follow in her lead and represent Cumbria in the county’s leg of the torch procession through the country.
Ryan Dobson; Project Officer for the Watchtree Wheelers said “We have many regular users here at the Centre but unfortunately we can’t nominate them all. We selected four young individuals, all of whom have individual strengths or personal traits that we believe make them worthy candidates”
Josh Davies 14, Tom Braithwaite 14, Solomon NG 13 and Lauren Armstrong 17 are all hoping for the opportunity to carry the torch for the county.
One of Josh’s cycling instructors; Wendy Woof nominated him for the role. Wendy said: “Josh is a normal 14 year old boy; however he also has Down’s syndrome and Autistic Spectrum.
Josh struggled with cycling at first but he is a determined soul and with a little help from the cycle instructors he soon championed the specially adapted trike that was selected for him. Pedalling can be confusing to someone who has never done it before, particularly when accurate communication is challenging. However Josh hasn’t given up and now rides a trike with much less adaptations.
“As an instructor for Josh’s cycle sessions I have been inspired and humbled by his efforts time and again. We now look to the future and improving his skills even further, so long as we can keep up.”
Tom Braithwaite also has Downs Syndrome and Autistic Spectrum. He has also had major heart surgery and has impaired hearing. As a member of the Watchtree Wheelers Cycling Centre he visits the facility regularly to take his parents on a tour of the Watchtree Nature Reserves cycle tracks; they used to take him but now he leads the way.
Tom has developed from cycling with many aids and help from instructors to riding a standard fixed wheel trike unassisted, a fantastic sporting achievement worthy of recognition.
Solomon, 13 faces several obstacles in his life including learning and communication difficulties. Originally from Hong Kong, Solomon moved to Carlisle with his family and joined the Watchtree Wheelers Cycling Centre two years ago.
On his first visit it was expected that Solomon would not ride, his balance was uneasy and coordination seemed an integral issue, however what he did have was enthusiasm and bags full of it.
Ryan Dobson said: “If Solomon could bring one thing to the Olympic Games I’d say it would be smiles, his happiness is simply contagious. He’s also now a fantastic cyclist far exceeding our expectations.
The final nomination was for Lauren Armstrong, she attends The Watchtree Wheelers regularly as well as being a member of the Funky Fridays Group at Wigton Youth Station, it was Lauren that set up the collaboration of the two groups for the Wigton Carnival in June.
The olympic nomination was also a group effort, Sam Massey; Lead Care Worker for the Wigton Youth Station said “
‘Lauren is a remarkable young lady and I am witness to the enthusiasm and determination that she exudes. No matter what the activity she always puts herself forward to be involved, and as a result has challenged herself on many levels. Lauren is an inspirational individual and her appetite for life is infectious.”
Ryan added “All these young cyclists are amazing ambassadors for the Watchtree Wheelers and we wish them all the best of luck”
25th of June 2011
Watchtree Wheelers and Wigton Youth Station Success at the Wigton Carnival 2011
The Watchtree Wheelers have been attending the Wigton Carnival for a few years but this year it was decided to up our game and really get noticed in the parade. One of the regular 'Drop In' users; Lauren Armstrong suggested that we teamed up with the Funky Fridays Groups from Wigton Youth Station.
The Wigton Youth Station is currently under enormous pressure due to lack of funding and the rising costs of maintaining thier Highstreet location. The Funky Fridays Groups are predominately teenagers with learning or physical difficulties.
They have visited Watchtree to use the cycles before and had a party on the Reserve for Laurens Birthday earlier this year! It was decided that we would collaborate our efforts for the Carnival and that their users would ride our bikes in the parade.
To add an extra twist to our carnival efforts we also decided to run a fundraiser on the day.
GS fitness of Wigton kindly loaned us two exercise bikes for the day which were ridden by our volunteers during the parade, after the parade we invited the public to 'donate a mile' on the exercise bikes to see how many miles we could clock up during the day! We used the oppotunity to tell people more about what we do and to sell drinks and snacks to raise funds.
Unfortunately one exercise bike wasn't tracking our mileage properly so we gave up on one, however we managed to total a massive 56miles on the other bike as well as the two miles travelled by our specially adapted cycles in the parade itself. In total we estimate 94 miles clocked up throughout the day. An astonishing effort considering the weather was pretty miserable!
We also raised £84 for the Wigton Youth Station as well as raising both organisations considerably.
A huge thankyou must go to GS Fitness for the exercise bikes, Russell Long for the loan of the trailer and all of the volunteers that helped out on the day.
22nd of June 2011
An Astonishing Donation!
Weve just had a Duet Cycle donated! Thanks to Leanne Weyman from Southampton for the very genorous donation, the cycle needs a little bit of work doing but will become an important part of our fleet once serviced.
There is a picture of a Duet Cycle below, for those of you itching your head wondering what were so ixcited about!
19th of June 2011
Carlisle Mass Cycle Ride; the Watchtree Wheelers put in a huge effort to help out at this years Carlisle Mass Cycle Ride. May we give a huge congratulations to the members of Carlisle Mencap that complete the 1.5 mile ride with us. An incredible effort and great promotion for the Cycling Centre, oppotunities to show the public exactly what we do are rare but we certainly made the most of this one.