It may have only been the second time they’ve done it, but they hoped to raise at least $15,000 for an important Aldershot program.
“We never really had a big fundraiser and we knew we needed one,” said Angie Crichton, site director of the Next Door Social Space on Plains Road East.
Crichton is referring to the second annual “Tour d’Aldershot” bike ride, which ran on two days, September 11 and 12, 2020. The first Tour d’Aldershot, held in 2019, raised $10,000 in support of Next Door’s offerings.
Next Door is an outreach program of the ForestView Church. It has supported people in need in Aldershot since 2012. It is located adjacent to the Warwick Surrey neighbourhood, where Crichton found that residents of nearby apartment buildings often “felt forgotten.” She says, “They were marginalized people that were struggling to make ends meet. They felt lonely. There was a need for people to have a place to build friendships, build community, have good food.”
The bike ride raised funds for a variety of Next Door’s neighbourhood programs, which in normal times include: cooking classes, sewing classes, lunch programs, English lessons for newcomers, ball hockey programs for children and breakfast events.
Despite the fact that COVID-19 has temporarily suspended many of the programs, the agency continues to be active. Crichton says, “Our COVID response has been to join forces with several other local churches. We are mass-producing healthy, wholesome food, around 300 plus sixteen-ounce containers of either soups, stews or healthy salads weekly. We give them to the Meal Bag Program at Wellington Square United Church. People won’t need to go to several locations for food.”
According to Crichton, COVID-19 has created a real sense of loneliness among people who usually partake in Next Door’s programming: “People are very, very sad. People are yearning for community to be together again.” One Aldershot resident who lives alone recently told her, “My days and my hours are so long.”
Despite the fact that the pandemic has been so disruptive, it has also resulted in an increase in volunteer support for Next Door.
“People actually have been more generous and more giving to us. We’ve had so many new volunteers. Lots of people have stepped up,” said Crichton.
The Tour d’Aldershot was organized by Next Door’s partner agency, Rolling Horse Community Cycle, which is located in the same building and provides courses on bike maintenance and offers sales of refurbished bikes. The tour ran over two days and maintained social distancing through staggered starts.
For Friday, Sept. 11, the route was described as “family friendly” and ranged from 3 to 10 km. The event started at 5 p.m. and focused on the new Francis Road Bikeway, which runs through the heart of the Warwick Surrey area. On Saturday, Sept. 12, the tour started at 8:15 a.m. and was for cyclists willing to go 40 to 80 km. The registration fee for the event was $25; donation information is available at: nextdoorsocialspace.com or rollinghorse.ca.
