A Mayor’s Mission – Website for Charity Bike Ride is a success!

This Saturday’s charity bike ride had a fantastic turn out, complete with a number of extravagant, flowered Hawaiian-style shirts amongst the cyclists, in support of ‘the most Irish, Flowery Mayor Henley has ever had’.

The bike ride managed to raise £3000 as the first of four charity fund-raising events scheduled over the coming year. Henley Town Mayor, Tom Buckley, has set out on his very own ‘Mayor’s Mission’, inspiring the local community to come together (and have some fun) in support of his three chosen charities…

– The Chiltern Centre, who provide specialist care for disabled people aged 16-30.

– Nomad, who provide support for young people and families. 

– Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire, a lifesaving charity who search for missing people, and support the emergency services.

Amongst their other local sponsors, such as Gabriel Machin, Experience Henley, and Warings; Waitrose and Pavilion had banded together to offer pre-ride refreshments for the cyclists as they came to collect at the start line in front of the Henley Town Hall.

Above Digital’s contribution to the cause was the Mayor’s Mission messaging, website design and build – providing an online hub for all event information, ride registration, donations, and details for upcoming events. 

The immersive, bespoke-built site was designed to present Tom Buckley’s Mayors Mission campaign statement, including the charities it would support and the range of fund-raising events, clearly and concisely.

Complete with Tank2’s fantastic Mayor’s Mission Logo design, we paid homage to the Mayor’s fabulous dress sense, with the Hawaiian flower motif throughout the site.

Given a shorter turn-around time (and with the unpredictable nature of event planning) this site was made with the future events in mind. Site content can be easily accessed through an intuitive CMS via WordPress, allowing for details to be put up quickly as events come together, and accommodating updates to be made during the course of their campaign such as the addition of event photo galleries, in place of registration information.

Big shout out to Bill Feeny- key to the rides smooth running and course set up, from way-markers to volunteers. Bill has years of experience working with charities like PIP, known for organising some pretty epic rides out of Lovibonds brewery.. Thanks, Bill!

Our man on the ground (founder, Alex, who whenever away from his work at Above Digital, can’t be pried off a mountain bike) captured some fantastic scenes from the flamboyantly dressed, multi-colour squad of cyclists (including two very well-dressed gentlemen on large Penny farthings, and one man wearing a tail) before they set off on their 20 mile joyride, over the hills and valleys of the local Chiltern trail. 

All these photos and many other behind-the-scenes shots can be found on the mayor’s mission website here  

What’s next?

With the success of the Mayor’s first fund-raising event, we still have a Literary Competition, Town Hall Club night, and Food Festival to look forward to!

Check out the rest of the photos (or get involved yourself) on the Mayor’s Mission website