Mr Bob rides with The BOBS for charity

This year is the 10th anniversary of an annual charity ride which raises funds for an orphanage in Phuket named The Asia Center Foundation (ACF). Find out how you can help.

As you may know our very own Mr Bob does a charity bike ride every year for an orphanage in Phuket named The Asia Center Foundation (ACF). This year is the 10th anniversary of the ride. It's a 1000 km bike ride over 5 days which always happens during the February half term. Last year Mr Bob’s team managed to make a donation of 580,000 THB to the center.

A wee bit of history:

The BOB's (Bangers on Bikes) was initially set up to try and raise some money for the ACF (Asia Centre Foundation) in Phuket. Three amigos (Jeff Klentzi, Pete Burges and Bob Pearson) decided in earnest to ride a bicycle down to Phuket with nothing organised but in the hope of surviving the ride and also trying to raise as much money as possible. Ten years later The BOB’s are revisiting the initial ride and will ride from BKK to Phuket. They will be setting off on 18 February and will hopefully reach the ACF centre on Friday 22 February.

The ride this year is a total of 985 km and over the years, in excess of 30 riders have participated in the rides. The ride has been able to assist the ACF, Naak Suu, as well as children charities in: Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand. The BOB’s have been able to support the charities in a number of different ways. For example they were able to help purchase a songtow that Nak Suu use and also created a building fund for the ACF and have helped them build a new kitchen and lay foundations for their school site in Phuket. Every baht that is raised is donated to the various charities as all the riders self fund their participation. It is incredible to think that since humble beginnings 9 years ago, the BOBs have now raised in excess of THB 5.5 million for the various children's charities.

With this being the 10th anniversary of the bike ride the ACF is very close to achieving its goal which was to build their own school and safe house. This year they have set a target of 500 000 THB which should see the school nearly completed.

From some of the photographs below you can see what a massive impact these funds have made to the young children. This is only possible with generous donations made our sponsors, friends, families and if you would like to make a donation to the bike ride, then please either contact Mr Bob in the primary PE department on [email protected] or click on the simply giving link to make a direct donation using your credit card.