Photos by Colleen Gauntlett. Left click to enlarge
Caldicot Male Voice Choir has a long and proud heritage in helping to raise many hundreds of thousands of pounds for local and national charities and two years ago the choir formed Côr Meibion Caldicot Cycle Club, not only to help raise fitness and enjoyment levels among its choristers and friends, but also to help raise even more for good causes. Last year the Choir and Cycle Club raised over £6300 to help The Victims of Chernobyl Children’s Trust in its efforts to provide much needed funds to aid the children of the nuclear devastated region of Belarus. Coincidentally six children from Belarus will visit the choir on 10th July.
This year the Choir has chosen Prostate Cymru as its designated charity and it has a target of £10,000 to reach by the end of the year. Prostate Cymru is the leading charity in the Principality working with medical professionals in the fight against all prostate diseases, benign and malignant. Its mission is to raise awareness, promote understanding and fund both the latest medical equipment and the training of healthcare professionals.
Part of the effort to reach this target is to hold a series of sponsored cycle club fund raising events and a major difficulty has been the transportation of cycles to a start point of a ride. The club has so far been limited to local circular rides. On 10th July 14 members and friends will begin the 200 mile ride from Fishguard to Caldicot over 3 days to end at Caldicot Choir Hall about 6-30pm on 12th July. They will be joined at Brecon by a further 14 cyclists to complete the final 65 miles along the Taff trail to Nelson and then via Newport to Caldicot.
Getting the bikes to Fishguard was a major problem, but local company J & W Fabrication and Welding of Shirenewton in the Wye Valley came up trumps with the offer to build a purpose built 16 berth cycle trailer for the exclusive use of the Cycle Club. This superb trailer was 3 months in the making by company director Mark Jones, his nephew and apprentice Rhys Jones, chorister Leon Jones and supported by director Kevin Williams.
At a special ceremony on July 7th Mark and Kevin of J & W were pleased to present the trailer to the choir at a break in singing practice and in return each of those involved in its construction was presented with a certificate by Choir members expressing the Choir’s appreciation.
The acquisition of the trailer will mean that the Cycle Club can now travel further afield in its activities and enable its charitable fund raising efforts to reach new heights.