Member Article

The Lazy Grace Simonside Challenge

Not your typical Saturday stroll through the woods

The hills at Simonside in Rothbury have long been a place for people to walk, play and cycle, taking in the breath-taking scenery and enjoying the peace and tranquillity that it has to offer.
Now imagine hurtling down the hill at speeds up to 50mph in a home-made soap box cart in front of a gathered crowd of spectators and being marshalled by a team of zombies. No, not easy to picture, is it?

June 15th will see the inaugural Simonside Challenge, organised by Lazy Grace, a design and marketing studio based in Northumberland to raise funds and the profile of the Percy Hedley Foundation, a charity supporting disabled children, young people and adults.

The Percy Hedley Foundation initially threw down the gauntlet by launching the Challenge 500 campaign in January urging companies participating to use their skills to turn an initial £500 investment into as much money as they can over a 6 month period.

Lazy Grace were initially going to use the money to enter the RedBull soapbox race in London, but soon realised that if London can do it, so can Rothbury and speedily set about organising the Simonside Challenge.

Now, lazy grace is inviting North East businesses to enter the challenge by building, begging, stealing or borrowing (actually, not stealing) a soapbox cart and raise funds for this amazing cause.

The challenge, which will be a soapbox race on Saturday June 15th, with see teams racing homemade carts through the beautiful Simonside Hills. A soapbox is a motorless vehicle capable of holding a driver that is propelled by gravity and can achieve speeds upwards of 50 miles per hour. The 1.6 kilometre course features plenty of turns along the route so fully functioning brakes and steering are a must!

Each team will pay a £250 entry fee, with all money going to the Percy Hedley Foundation. Teams will consist of four people, split into two groups. The first group of people will push the cart, at speed, up to the top of the hill and the pilot (and co-pilot if required!) will then race it down. Points will be awarded for creativity, performance and speed.

Ian McAllister, from Lazy Grace, said: “We like to do things a little differently at Lazy Grace so we all put our thinking caps on to try and come up with an imaginative fundraising idea. We think the Simonside Challenge is a really exciting idea and we’ve already had a number of local companies signing up for the race.”
He continued: “This should be a really fun event but it also has a very serious purpose and that is to raise as much money as possible for the Percy Hedley Foundation. I’ve been lucky enough to visit the charity and the services they provide to disabled people are amazing.”

Julie Calvert, Head of Marketing, Communications and Income Generation at the Percy Hedley Foundation, said: “It never ceases to amaze me what people do to raise money for us, but this is something particularly special. The team at Lazy Grace have clearly been thinking outside the box.”
She added: “Challenge 500 urges participating companies to use their skills to turn our £500 investment into as much money as they can over a six-month period and I’m delighted Lazy Grace have signed up to support the project.”

To find out more about the inaugural Simonside Challenge, or to sign up, please visit: http://www.simonsidechallenge.com/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by lazy grace .