Meet Star* Beatrice
Our riders in the North West of England had the chance last week to visit one of our brilliant WWMT-supported charities: Star* Scheme. Their mission is through the sport of rugby, to make a material difference in the lives of young people who have Adverse Childhood and community Experiences (ACEs), poverty or mental health issues.
Joined by Le Loop mechanic Yogi, Loopers Peter and Brendan were welcomed by regional manager Tom Kenny for a visit to the Manchester branch of Star* Scheme. Tom is an inspirational guy, whose enthusiasm is infectious. He explained more about the work of the charity, sharing stories of success as well as the immense challenges these young people face.
“Your support will help to transform the lives of some of the most vulnerable young people in our region”. – Tom Kenny
Meet Beatrice
Perhaps the highlight of the visit was meeting 17 year old Beatrice, who collected her very first bike that same day, donated by a local bike shop. We’re totally delighted that Beatrice has agreed to be one of our 2 charity visitors on tour this summer. This means that with any luck, she’ll try and cycle at least some of the stage with our riders. The only catch is … she’s literally never ridden a bike before!
“Beatrice, the star* young person who will be joining stage 16 of ‘le loop’ … won’t mind me sharing with you that she has a 40 minute journey each way to get to rugby sessions which star* scheme support and she recently made her county debut for Lancashire U18s! When we first proposed ‘Le Loop’ to her, she told us that she doesn’t have a passport and that she has never ridden a bike before but she that she was bang up for the challenge! She is a star in more ways than one!”
Supported by her rugby coach and 2 mates, she made her first tentative, wobbly pedal strokes around the clubhouse on her ‘new’ bike. She’s nothing if not game! As luck would have it, our mechanic Yogi is a qualified ‘Learn to Ride’ instructor, so was on hand to give her lots of tips and pointers to get her started. She may have a long way to go, but something tells us that isn’t going to stop her. Bravo Beatrice! Bon courage!
We’ve helped Beatrice to apply for her first passport and we’ll be providing her with helmet, cycling kit and plenty of support ahead of her joining us in France. She has a fabulous ‘can do’ attitude and is very very excited about her adventure on tour with us this summer. We know you’ll join us in welcoming her warmly on tour and enjoy hearing her tell her story (while Tom will tell us more about the wider work of Star* Scheme in the North West of England).
If you want to read a few of Star* Scheme’s success stories, check them out here. Some of alumni will recognise the stories of Daley and James who have both been previous charity visitors on Tour. Several of our alumni, having been so impressed by James last summer, generously donated to a recent crowdfunder to help James go on a rugby tour to South America with his new school (a local independent school that he won a bursary to join this academic year). Having had such a tough start in life, James’ future is looking bright thanks to the brilliant work of Star* Scheme and continued support of many including WWMT and our wonderful Alumni. We’re incredibly proud of everything our riders do to support this work.
As one of our Alumni recently emailed us to say, “I LOVE what this charity does!”.
So do we! 😊
Vive Le Tour!
(Nb: our charity visitors on tour project is funded entirely by one of our Alumni each year. As ever, we couldn’t be more grateful for his support).