£230,000 FUNDING BOOST FOR PIONEERING GLASGOW BIKE PROJECT
Play on Wheels project wins People’s Postcode Lottery’s Dream Fund
At the wonderful PPL Gala on Wednesday evening, the lottery made two significant awards from their Dream Fund. An innovative Glasgow based project, which sets out to encourage children to take up cycling, has won an amazing £231,957 and the child rescue project Missing People was also awarded £225,000.
A four way partnership, including the Cyclist Touring Club and the Glasgow Bike Station, developed the idea for the project ‘Play on Wheels’ which aims to empower 7,000 children across Glasgow to learn how to ride a bike. Thanks to the support of players of People’s Postcode Lottery the Dream Fund is making this incredible concept become a reality..
This project aims to get every child under four years old in Glasgow on a bike. Play on Wheels aims to help children lead healthier lifestyles and increase activity levels. This fantastic project will work with 50 community organisations, including nurseries, playgroups, disability support groups, health and medical centres, and community centres across Glasgow to create a group of cycling ambassadors. These will be instrumental in targeting every family in their community and getting them cycling.
Suzanne Forup, Cycling Development Officer at Cyclist Touring Club said; “This is absolutely fantastic news for everyone involved with developing the plans for Play on Wheels. It’s great that as a result of this funding through Dream Fund we can get the wheels in motion to make this dream a reality. We would like to offer a huge thank you to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for their support. ”
Clara Govier, Head of Charities at People’s Postcode Lottery said; “This is the biggest sum of money that has ever been given to a Dream Fund project and we are absolutely delighted that our players are able to support this fantastic project in Glasgow. With the Commonwealth Games just around the corner this is the perfect project to kick of the year of sport for Glasgow.”
The project was one of two to secure funding from the Dream Fund which asked charities to work with partners to develop their dream projects. This year, for the first time, applications were open across Great Britain.
The winners were announced on Wednesday night at People’s Postcode Lottery’s annual Charity Gala held at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh to which The Edinburgh Reporter was invited. The event was made extra special as keynote speaker Chelsea Clinton joined 500 guests to celebrate the tremendous impact that players of the charity lottery make each day.
Ms Clinton explained that the Clinton Foundation was set up to reflect her father’s view that philanthropy can help to fill the gap between public funding and private fundraising efforts. Funding announcements of over £1,000,000 were made on the night to a range of charities and good causes including £500,000 to the Clinton Foundation who carry out work in Malawi, which Ms Clinton said she was very proud of. She also explained that the Foundation is careful only to work in countries where they are invited in, and that after their exit from Malawi they hope to carry out projects in Tanzania. It is important to the Foundation that they have a clear goal of helping only as long as they need to. They aim to ‘transform lives and communities from what they are today to what they can be tomorrow’.
To date, players of People’s Postcode Lottery have helped generate in excess of £35.6m for good causes.
Entertainment by the Rock Choir and Jahmene Douglas made the evening very special indeed. A further cheque for £5,000 was given to X Factor contestant Douglas who supports a domestic abuse charity.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
