Events
First, the headlines! We laid on 137 events over the year, with a total attendance in excess of 6,100. Our core events, at Abbey Park and Saffron Lane, took place on 53 occasions with an attendance figure of around 2,000. We went to every special school in the city and county who expressed an interest in hosting our events. There is also some good news next year for county special schools…
Thanks to an excellent relationship with the city council, we were able to take our fleet to most of the Neighbourhood Centres, as well as making sure disabled adults and children were catered for at the very popular Cycle Fest and Open Streets events, which took place at the cycle circuit and city centre respectively.
In what was a first for us, we entered into a partnership with Sustrans, the walking and cycling charity, and MacIntyre care home to set up our Great Central Rides. For two days a week over the summer holidays, our session leaders escorted MacIntyre residents and their carers, using our wheelchair platform trikes, along the Great Central Way from the city centre to the Everards brewery and visitor centre, a six mile round trip. This was a great success, and a very visual way of promoting ourselves to the public. One of our session leaders is putting together a video of the events, which we hope to release next year.
We also linked up with Sense – a national charity supporting everyone who is deaf-blind or has complex disabilities. Their local branch, based in Loughborough, helped us to lay on sessions at Loughborough University, again over the summer holidays, and we are looking forward to working with them again in 2024.
Some of the other events we have taken our fleet to do not fit exactly into any category, but which nonetheless allowed participants to experience the sense of independence and fun that our sessions bring. These included the Mallory Mile event at Mallory Park race circuit and, erm, the Western Park beer festival…
People
2023 was the first year in which we operated without our founder, Peter Simmonds. After more than seven years of involvement, and taking LWFA from a gleam in his eye to the well-established organisation that it is today, Peter decided to step back from taking an active role. It is no exaggeration to say that we would not be here at all without his vision and dedication. We wish him all the best for the future.
We welcomed four new trustees, who came forward following an appeal in a previous newsletter. They are already bringing a wealth of experience and ideas to the LWFA table, and we are extremely grateful to them for joining us. New session leaders and volunteers also came forward, but not in the numbers we would ideally like if we are to continue to expand. If you, or anyone you know, would like to find out more about these roles, please let me know.
Assets and funding
We have bought another hand cycle, a KMX cart, a Tomcat trike and Mission 1 + 2 trike. We have been donated a wheelchair platform, tandem, side by side and trike. Less helpfully, our third wheelchair platform trike, which we had been operating since our inception on loan from the city council, had to be returned.
Our online crowd-funding campaign to replace that machine with a new one, capable of handling electric wheelchairs and their users, has raised around £4,000 to date. We are applying for grants from various bodies to help make up the shortfall, and in doing so help us fill what is the only exception to our boast that our fleet can accommodate anyone, no matter what their disability.
Our total income for the year was around £44,000, of which the majority (£22,000) came from paid-for events, closely followed by grants received amounting to some £20,000. The balance was made up of donations for which we are, as ever, very grateful. Our cash in hand figure at the end of the year is around £22,000, which will enable us to hold regular sessions at Abbey Park and Saffron Lane, even in the unlikely event that no other income is forthcoming in 2024.