Beat the Street Swindon participants are invited to Go Wild this week!
The themed week starts on Wednesday 6th October with the aim of encouraging local residents to explore their local parks, waterways and green spaces.
There are double points available on certain Beat Boxes over the weekend, plus a Nature Bingo event at Queen’s Park on Saturday 9th October to Sunday 10th October.
There are also three “Poles in the Park” sessions in locations across the town where Beat the Street players can take part in a free Swindon WALX urban pole walking taster session to find out how using walking poles can improve the health benefits of your walk.
This is the third time that Swindon has played Beat the Street and participants have walked, cycled and rolled more than 200,000 miles halfway through the six-week game. More than 28,000 people are playing and clocking up active travel miles with the aim of getting fitter, spending time with friends and family in green spaces and competing for prizes.
The top teams on the total and average points leaderboards will win £150 of book or sport vouchers, plus there are lucky Beat Box prizes and also the chance to help charity teams Jessie May and the Harbour Project to win a cash donation.
Haydonleigh Primary School is at the top of the total points leaderboard while Fish in the Percolator leads the average points leaderboard. Team Hope leads the community teams and was set up by keen runner Caroline Matthews as one of her children, daughter Hope, has a Mitochondrial disease. Their 50 players are using their Beat the Street daily runs to help raise awareness of Hope’s condition during Mitochondrial Disease Awareness month. While tapping the Beat Boxes around the town, Team Hope has been leaving handcrafted crocheted butterflies with messages with poems and information for people to find to raise awareness plus to direct people to the Lily Foundation which is a charity that supports families affected by the condition.
Caroline Matthews said, “Each butterfly has a message attached to say ‘I’m not lost, I’m just alone, if I make you smile, please take me home’ and lots of them have been found by Beat the Street players and shared on various social platforms. I am also very proud of the fact that Team Hope has bought together runners from every running club in Swindon.”
Sarah Cotton, Support & Development Officer at Community Pharmacy Swindon & Wiltshire (CPSW) is playing in a community team that represents and supports all pharmacies and their teams to deliver the best possible NHS services to patients in this area.
She said, “Community pharmacy is always working to support and advise the public in making healthy life choices, so we thought it was a great opportunity for us to be part of Beat the Street, as a local health initiative! We are having a lot of fun joining in the game across Swindon, as the CPSW Team. My children are getting very competitive now I’m on a different team to them (they are supporting Lainesmead Primary School)! Our community pharmacist Robert, from Ashington Way Pharmacy, is currently winning within our team, and is setting a personal score that will be very hard to catch!”
Beat the Street is brought to you by Swindon Borough Council working in partnership with Wiltshire and Swindon Sport (WASP), and Swindon Healthy Schools. It is delivered by Intelligent Health.
Councillor Brian Ford, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults and Health said, “We’re delighted to support the Beat the Street programme and it’s great to see people out exercising and exploring new areas.
“It’s amazing how we tend to stick to the same tried and tested routes and how the game has opened up the idea of exploring the town on foot, which reveals new areas and parks you might not have known about, even if you’ve lived here for years.”
“Beat the Street is a positive and community-focused way of encouraging people to get more active, by walking, cycling, rolling and wheeling around our wonderful town.”
Anyone of any age is invited to take part in the free game and you can still get involved for the remaining weeks. Just pick up a card from one of the distribution points listed at www.beatthestreet.me/swindon, register your card, join a team and get playing!
The game supports Swindon Borough Council’s Be the Change campaign which aims to encourage individuals and organisations to make small changes in their lives to reduce their impact on the environment.
