Crystal Palace fans have raised almost £50,000 for the Palace for Life Foundation by completing a 120-mile bike ride from Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium to Selhurst Park.
The Foundation’s annual ‘Bike To’ challenge first took place in 2020 and has raised more than £130,000, with fans riding from home ground Selhurst Park to the away stadium for that weekend’s fixture – including Southampton, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
However, due to the schedule of this season’s footballing calendar, the challenge was adapted to become ‘Bike from Bournemouth’, with 45 riders setting off from the Vitality Stadium on Friday 18th April, before arriving at Selhurst Park on Saturday 19th April.
Bobby Webbe, Fundraising Manager at Palace for Life, expressed his gratitude to all of the riders and celebrated their success.
Webbe said: “We’re blown away to have raised a record-breaking £49,875 and counting!
“This is all thanks to the non-stop fundraising efforts of our riders and the support of our event sponsor – Concept Building Services.”
He continued to thank all of the riders for pushing through the pain barrier to raise the incredible amount of money which will go a long way to support the charity’s work in south London.
The riders completed the majority of the 104-mile ride on Friday before finishing the last leg of the challenge on Saturday morning – arriving at Selhurst Park around 12.30pm.
The pack of riders were greeted by a crowd of Palace fans and Foundation staff, congratulating each and every rider on their momentous achievement.
Robert Sutherland, one of the riders in this year’s event and host of fan podcast Five Year Plan, explained why he wanted to get involved: “Being a Palace fan, it’s a way to contribute to the club.
“Palace for Life does so many important things that people don’t know about – so being able to fund that and raise the visibility of it is so important.”
Palace for Life Foundation is the official charity of Crystal Palace, and has been working within the south London community for over 30 years using football and the power of the Palace brand to change the lives of young people.
The Foundation’s work in the local community has three key focuses – helping move away from violence and knife crime, helping them to find employment and opportunities, and supporting more people with their mental and physical health.
Webbe praised the camaraderie and friendships built during the event between riders, and teased next year’s event by stating that he’s already counting down to next season’s fixture release.
Post-challenge, riders enjoyed the pre-match atmosphere in the fan zone where they soaked up the sunshine and celebrations, before being treated to a rather feisty 0-0 draw.
Both sets of players were clearly up for the encounter, with the fierce contest generating eight yellow cards, including Chris Richards’ red card for a second bookable offence.
Heading into the game, Crystal Palace sat 12th in the table and were only five points behind 8th placed Bournemouth, with the reverse fixture in December also finishing 0-0.
The Foundation also runs a number of different sporting sessions and teams, including Premier League Kicks for primary schools, free girls football and disability sport school programmes.
Another of the Foundation’s sports teams the DS Eagles, their down syndrome football team, launched their own cover of the club anthem ‘Glad All Over’ last week, and showcased their music video during the game at half-time.
If you want to find out more about the brilliant work that the charity does, please visit https://www.palaceforlife.org/
Feature Image Credit: Palace for Life
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