An intrepid six-year-old has played the Beat the Street Lambeth game and raised £135 for his school library along the way.
Ray Whibicks is one of 7,000 local residents playing the physical activity challenge that has turned the entire borough into a real-life game.
Since the Sudbourne Primary School pupil found out about the game he made it his mission to cycle to every single one of the 135 special sensors called Beat Boxes that have been affixed to lampposts to measure how far participants are walking, cycling and running!
As well as getting more active, Ray is using the Beat the Street experience to help raise money for his school’s library.
His mum Laura said: “Thank you so much for organising Beat the Street. My son Ray Whibicks has had us out on our bikes ever since trying to find every Beat Box. I’ve never seen him so happy and inspired. Thank you! Ray has just tapped into the last Beat Box – he’s now cycled to every one in Lambeth at least once. South Lambeth has some big hills! We’ve now done 100 miles of cycling in two weeks.
“He’s still determined to keep cycling to get as many points as possible so thank you for the motivation! We are loving finding every Beat Box and exploring Lambeth together.
“We love BTS!”
The idea is that people will find something that they might not have tried before to help them continue to keep up their new active habits after the Beat the Street competition comes to an end on 3rd August and to explore the sports and leisure options on offer.
Nearly 7,000 people have signed up to play the Beat the Street Lambeth game and have together walked, cycled, wheeled, run and scooted an incredible 40,000 miles so far in the competition.
Anyone of any age is invited to take part and you can still get involved now by picking up a card from one of the distribution points on www.beatthestreet.me/lambeth . You can join an existing school, community group or workplace team or you can set up your own. Alternatively, you can join the charity teams Pennu, Junvenis and Wheels for Wellbeing.
Teams of all varieties including schools, community groups and workplaces have been battling it out for the past several weeks across the average and total points leaderboards to take home prizes of vouchers for books if they top the leaderboard. There are also prizes for individuals and ‘lucky spot’ prizes just for taking part.
Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth’s Cabinet member for Stronger Communities, Leisure and Sports, said: “The aim of Beat the Street is to encourage communities to become more active and to incorporate those healthy habits into their lifestyles over the long-term so they become part of people’s lifestyle. The Go Active themed week is a celebration of all the ways you can get moving in and around the area and a fabulous opportunity to try out something new without any pressure.
“Beat the Street is a fantastic, free-to-enter initiative and anyone can get involved. As well as encouraging you to get active which will have a hugely positive impact on your health, you could also help support a community team to win a prize.”
Beat the Street Lambeth has been commissioned by Lambeth Borough Council with support from the National Lottery via Sport England. It is being delivered by Intelligent Health.
More information is available at www.beatthestreet.me/lambeth and @BTSLambeth and Ray can be sponsored at https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ray-whibicks-sudbourne#eyJkb25hdGlvbklkIjoiMTA5MTI0NTUxMiIsImN1cnJlbmN5Q29kZSI6IkdCUCIsImRvbmF0aW9uVmFsdWUiOiIxMCJ9
