Go Smarter, Go Active Roadshow

Lots of events rely on enthusiastic volunteers to make the event run smoothly and be the positive presence on the front line, read on to find out more, and why you should volunteer.

What is it?

As part of a major Active Travel campaign, Transport North East are delivering a series of seven week-long roadshow events and interactive workshops this summer, to be held across the seven local authority areas of Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Northumberland, County Durham and Gateshead. The ease of lockdown restrictions provides us with a unique opportunity to deliver a major push to change travel habits for the better. These exciting events across the region will encourage the public to walk and cycle more – for leisure and to commute. The roadshows will help families who would benefit from support in teaching their children to ride a bike, it will also help adults who wish to boost their cycling confidence/ability or are unable to ride a bike and wish to learn.

The campaign will show people that it is enjoyable to travel around the region on foot or by bike, which could encourage a shift away from car travel, reducing carbon. The aim of the roadshow is to encourage individuals and families to learn how to cycle and provide new skills to encourage more people to travel sustainably for leisure or work. The roadshows will be held as follows:

Willowburn Leisure Centre Alnwick, NE66 2JH            19-21 July

Ponteland Leisure Centre NE20 9EG                               22-25 July

Exhibition Park Newcastle                                                  26 July-1 August

Chester le Street Riverside Park                                        2-4 August

Hardwick Country Park Sedgefield                                  5-8 August

Herrington Country Park Sunderland                             9-15 August

Richardson Dees Park Wallsend                                       16-22 August

Saltwell Park Gateshead                                                      23-29 August

South Marine Park South Shields                                     30 August-5 September

What do we need?

We are looking for 2 to 3 volunteers to help us check people’s booking details (sessions are free but can be booked online via Eventbrite and we will also take walk up bookings from park users), direct people to sessions and help with customer surveys using iPads. We’d like volunteers on site for 09.30 to receive a briefing from the event team. This will explain what to do, and what to do in the event of anything going wrong. We have a first aider with us every day during the sessions, specialist cycle instructors, and security. We value your time, and appreciate that you may not always be able to be there for the full period, so if you can’t make a full session just let us know and we will try to work around that.

What do you get?

You will get an event t-shirt, branded facemask, water bottle and we will pay £20 per person per day which can be paid to you or whichever organisation, community group or charity you represent.

Volunteering is a great way to enhance your CV, learn new skills, boost your confidence, meet people and have fun!

What will be happening?

We’ll have a mix of learn to ride and bike maintenance sessions for all ages, with everything from balance bikes to tandems so people can have a go on different bikes and see what might work best for them. A sample weekly programme is shown below. Each day the sessions will take place between 10.00 & 15.00 each day, with around 30 people per session so there will never be huge numbers on site to give enough room for social distancing. All activity will be in the open air, the bike team will wipe down all equipment between users, and the event will be Covid safe.

How do you sign up?

For more details please complete this online form. 

You can also contact the event team at info@beaconhouse-events.co.uk for more information.