A team of cyclists from Tong Garden Centre completed the challenging Tour de Yorkshire sportive last week and raised over £4,000 for our literacy hub Bradford Stories which they recently announced as their charity of the year.
The team of nine, including directors, staff, suppliers and friends, rode 80km on some of the the same roads as the fourth and final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire pro race on Sunday, 5th May.
The ride included 1,228m of ascent, but riders were rewarded with stunning views along the route.
Tong Garden Centre Managing Director, Mark Farnsworth said: “Bradford Stories is a fantastic initiative from the National Literacy Trust and Bradford Council to improve literacy levels in the city by promoting reading, writing, speaking and listening.
“As a business, Tong would like to raise £10,000 for them this year. I was joined on the ride by my fellow directors Tom, Charlie and David and we set ourselves a challenging fundraising target of £4,000, so we’re naturally delighted to have reached it. There’s still time to donate though, so if you’d like to support us, please visit justgiving.com/fundraising/tong-garden-centre.”
Imran Hafeez, Manager of the National Literacy Trust Hub in Bradford, said:
“We are absolutely delighted that Tong Garden Centre have chosen the National Literacy Trust as their charity of the year. Since launching Bradford Stories, we have delivered lots of inspiring projects and achieved great results.
“Congratulations to Mark and the team for this fantastic achievement.”
The team at Tong aims to raise the £10,000 through a series of fundraising events and collection boxes at the tills.
The Bradford Stories campaign focuses on sharing stories across the city, engaging dads in their child’s learning and the benefits of bilingualism.
Tong Garden Centre occupies a 14 acre site in Tong village. It is one of Yorkshire’s biggest garden centres with 110,000 square feet of retail space and parking for up to 1,000 cars.