St Elizabeth Hospice celebrates record-breaking workplace Ridefest challenge

16 local businesses have been competing against each other over the last few weeks in the St Elizabeth Hospice Ridefest challenge, knocking up over 600 miles of cycling in total.

Ridefest brings the action in to the office in a static workplace cycling challenge, this year sponsored by Damco and Maersk. Each business enters the team and CEO race and whoever cycles the furthest within a half hour stint works their way up (or down) the leader board as more businesses complete their Ridefest entry within the Ridefest fortnight.

The top three businesses in each category then go head to head at the Ridefest final and networking event, which took place on Wednesday 20 March at Venue 77. An extra place in the final is reserved for the team that raised the most money for St Elizabeth Hospice alongside their cycling.

In a Ridefest first – one business – Curtis Banks, walked away with all three accolades! Curtis Banks won a place in the final for their fundraising efforts – not their cycling – and ended up being the dark horse of the competition, winning both the team race and CEO race. Curtis Banks entered two teams in to Ridefest and raised £2,052.61 in total for the hospice.

Taking place in the final team race were Brehney Civil Engineering (last year’s winners), Damco (Ridefest sponsor) and Curtis Banks. Unfortunately Spin Ipswich, who kindly provided the bikes for the final competitions, had to pull out of the team race last minute.

In the CEO final race was Brian Wybrow from KLH Architects, Karen Rogers from Corbel, Gail Bosley from Damco and Tom Coe from Curtis Banks.

Jazmin Peach, corporate fundraiser for St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “This has been the biggest Ridefest to date and we’ve been blown away by the level of commitment (and friendly banter!) from all of the teams taking part. We’ve really enjoyed each and every workplace race and hope all our participants have too!

“Curtis Banks are the new Ridefest champions and we hope they display the coveted yellow Ridefest jersey with pride in their offices! In total Ridefest has raised almost £13,000 for the hospice, which is a fantastic result and will help us to continue providing care free of charge to the families in east Suffolk that need our support.”

Jason Evans from Curtis Banks, representing the winning team, said: “We are delighted to have supported St Elizabeth Hospice, our charity of the year, with a successful RideFest. The event has brought all three of our offices together and added colour, fun and competition to the workplace.  We are thrilled to have raised £2,052.61 for the event, a massive thank you to all our staff, their families and friends who helped to organise and support Ridefest and to everyone who donated to our fundraising efforts.

“Supporting local charities is something Curtis Banks actively seeks to be involved with, and what better time to support St Elizabeth Hospice than on their 30th anniversary. We look forward to supporting the Hospice with further fundraising events throughout the year.”

For more information on RideFest or St Elizabeth hospice, visit their website >>