As if annually taking on a stage of the Tour de France hasn't been enough, this year, in celebration of his 50th Birthday, Bill Badham is taking on 'Le Triple Ventoux' challenge to raise money for the Maypole Centre. This from his Just Giving page:
There is a challenge organized by a French bicycle club (actually, a brotherhood) next to Mount Ventoux, a massive 2000 metre mountain in Provence in France. They say, “It is normal for a bike rider to try to climb Mont Ventoux at least once in a lifetime, but you are crazy if you do it again.â€
There are 3 different routes you can use to go to the top of Mont Ventoux.
If you can climb all the routes in one day thats what Bill is going to do on July 6 2008 (starting from Bedoin, Malaucene and Sault), between sunrise and sunset, you are declared “Nut of Mont Ventoux.†Putting all that in perspective, to accomplish this feat Bill will climb 4500 metres. That's over half the height of Everest – the descending is another story.
Bill is raising funds for Maypole Youth Centre. Pete and 3 young people, Ross, Matt and Jon will be cycling up one of the routes and descending with Bill on his final descent.
Bill is wanting to raise £1 a metre of climbing – that's £4500. The money raised will fund 45 young people from Druids Heath Estate over the next three years to take part in their Spring Adventure weekend which Matt, Ross and Jon will be organising. Check out our youtube sites! oh yeah and with your speaker volume to highWhy Maypole? Bill says "Well there are of course many great projects working with young people. It's just that for me, the Maypole Centre represents all that is most wonderful and inspiring about young people and all that is best in supporting young people achieve their full potential."
So, if you've ever sneakily downloaded a copy of Hear by Right or you've been inspired by one of Bill's energetic keynote speeches, or even if you don't know Bill, but want to support a fantastic youth project in Birmingham – then do head over to Just Giving and drop in a donation.
(I've worked with Bill for the last 6 years – in fact, it was in a project managed by Bill that I first got involved in youth participation. Plus, the Maypole Centre were one of the sites piloting a model of youth work based upon Positive Youth Development earlier this year. T'is really worth supporting.)
Maypole Youth-Healthy Outcomes