by Sam Hawcroft
A weekly motorcycle meet in Hedon supported Yorkshire Air Ambulance’s Turn Yorkshire Yellow Week on Monday, July 6.
Visitors to the gathering at St Augustine’s Church were encouraged to add a splash of yellow to their outfits in recognition of the charity campaign, which runs from July 6-12.
The evening was quieter than usual, possibly owing to England’s World Cup victory over Mexico that kept the nation up in the early hours of Monday morning. However, £70 was raised and organisers hope the weekly gathering will continue to attract support as more people become aware of it.
The bike meet takes place outside the church every Monday and was started initially on Sundays about three years ago by Hedon resident Jonathan Davies.
He said: “The footfall varied from one or two to occasionally 30 or 40, but it was usually one or two. Everyone said, ‘Put it on a weeknight.’
“The trouble is there are bike meets on most other nights around the area, so the only free night was Monday.”
The meet was established primarily to help generate funds towards the upkeep of St Augustine’s.
Jonathan said: “The main idea was to generate some revenue for the church because the building maintenance requires an awful lot of money.
“The roof needs £100,000 worth of work doing and there isn’t £100,000 in the kitty. £50 a week or whatever it is might be a drop in the ocean, but it helps a little bit.”
Rev Sue Pulko, who attended Monday’s gathering, said the church needed all the help it could get to keep the historic building going.
Money raised during a normal week is shared at the end of the season between Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the church. Jonathan said the charity’s Turn Yorkshire Yellow Week presented an ideal opportunity to give it some additional support.
However, he admitted the future of the event would depend on whether more people chose to support it.
He said: “Whether we continue this next year or not is down to people, really. A lot of people have said they don’t come as there’s no catering like a café, but it’s a catch-22 – without people we cannot have catering, but without catering we cannot have people.”
Jonathan, whose home-made cakes nevertheless went down well among those attending, said the event was also intended to encourage more people to visit Hedon.
“There’s lots of open space here and lots of parking,” he said. “People should use it. It would be great if we could eventually have a large bike meet once a year like Hornsea.”
Yorkshire Air Ambulance operates three helicopters, providing emergency care for about five million people across the region. The charity relies on public donations to remain operational.
The Hedon bike meet takes place at St Augustine’s Church every Monday evening from 5.30pm, with motorcyclists and other visitors welcome to attend.