Noel Park held its festival in Russell Park, and Haringey Cyclists were there, alongside Friends of the Earth and London Wildlife Trust. Our table had an array of stickers, badges, copies of London Cycling magazines, maps, and other information.
Three main groups come up to our stall. First there are the children: ‘Can we have a badge? Are they free? Can I have a sticker?’
They are followed by their parents, and we talk to them about bringing their children on our community rides, give them HCC cards, and suggest they look at the website for our September ride; lots of parents seem interested in the idea of going further than the local park.
Then there are the cyclists, some of whom know about LCC but some of them don’t, and they are interested to talk about routes and bikes and local dangers – ways of avoiding Green Lanes, etc. They take magazines, maps and other information and we encourage them to look at HCC’s website to see what’s happening.
As a way of engaging the children while talking to their parents, I encouraged them to draw a bike; there was a small, edible reward for their efforts. Bikes are notoriously hard to draw, even if you’re copying one! Here are some of their versions.
It was a very pleasant event, with live music and plenty of great activities for children to enjoy. Is it worth doing? I doubt if we will recruit members this way, but if a few people look at our website and notice our rides, I think that’s worth it. And on a sunny Sunday, it’s a way to publicise Haringey Cycling in the local community. In retrospect, we should have had a petition about improving Green Lanes; we’d have collected plenty of signatures!
Thank you to Michael and Jaqui for helping on the stall.
