Taking part in Ride & Stride is a great way of sharing your church building with others, and could help you raise funds to maintain it too! There are two ways that your church could get involved in Ride & Stride:
Welcome sponsored visitors to your church. We would love it if as many churches as possible were open to welcome sponsored visitors on 9th September. Your church doesn’t necessarily be manned or provide refreshments, though both of these can help to enhance the experience for visitors. Find all the information you’ll need below.
Get your congregation involved as participants. Could you or someone else in your congregation take part in Ride & Stride? You’ll also find resources to advertise the event to potential participants on this page.
Remember, churches from all denominations – Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and more – can and do take part in Ride & Stride.
Welcome Sponsored Visitors
If you can, please try to keep your church open on Ride & Stride day for sponsored visitors. It doesn’t have to be all day, but if you are planning to be open it helps for participants to know between which hours this will be – please let us know by registering your church. You do not have to provide refreshments, but are invited to do so if you are able. Some churches provide welcomers for sponsored visitors, others are unmanned.
If your church is open for Ride & Stride, you may wish to provide a form that participants can fill in to say that they have visited – that way, you can keep track of how many people have visited your church. A template for this is available here.
If your church is manned, please sign the forms of participants as they arrive to show that they have visited you.
Get your Congregation Involved
Anyone can take part in Ride & Stride. The more participants there are, the more funds can be raised for the Historic Churches Trust – and participants may opt to nominate your church to receive half the money raised. Please do encourage members of your congregation to participate – even if only for a couple of hours. Walking, riding, cycling, driving – all are possible means of taking part.
You may find this poster helpful for encouraging people to sign up:
Everything participants need is available at the link below:
Worcestershire & Dudley Ride & Stride 