SACA ride – An opportunity to move from I to We.

By admin on July 15, 2008 • ( 0 )

As part of the organising committee that organises the Birmingham to London Cycle (UK) ride every year. Our organising team / committee consists of approx 8 volunteers from London, Luton and Birmingham (19th-20th July 2008). The ride takes at least 10 months to organise. Let us also not forget this year there is a giant mela to welcome the riders and raise more money for charity with stalls and performers at SKLP Community Centre on 20th July from 12pm to 5pm.

If you took part last year, you will remember, the friends, fellowship and fun that we all had raising money for Children with Leukemia (CWL). Together we successfully raised £25,000.

This year we have chosen the same charity again. This year the ride takes place from 19th-20th July 2008. As a reminder, the ride is organised by SACA (Sikh Arts and Culture Association).

This is a community ride that also shows that collectively we can perform good in society and be humble about it too! The other good thing about this ride is that is demonstrates what I tend to hark on about – People from different backgrounds coming together for a common cause – focusing on self-less service – together with an opportunity to train and test their stamina (NB Health disclaimers are given).

This year we managed to configure the site with a link to www.justgiving.com – (NB My sponsorship page is at: http://www.justgiving.com/saviarora – your kind donations/sponsorship would be greatly appreciated). This is a brilliant way to collect online sponsorship for any charity. Once the charity is registered it takes just a few moments for individuals to create their own pages, set targets and gain encouragement / momentum!

Moving away from I to We.

It is also interesting that National Rail is using the following marketing strap line: ‘you take the journey with you’. Orange has just unveiled ‘I am’ as their new strap line which will replace ‘the future is bright, the future is orange’. The latter line was introduced by ad agency WCRS for Orange in 1994 to launch the mobile phone brand into the UK market. The ’I Am Everyman’ television commercial suggests a number of messages. Some online marketing publications have suggested that this brand change has cost Orange a few million to complete. Someone suggested £10M?

I wonder if the 21st century has increasingly become – A world for the ‘I’ generation, for example: I pod and MySpace. Yet, the irony is, that for each of these components to operate one has to interact with others?

Mohammad Ali, the famous boxer once gave one of the most powerful and shortest lectures in Oxford. He simply announced, ‘Me, We’.

When I looked through some of the other events featured on Justgiving it gave me a reassurance that there are so many good causes and people prepared to help.

In a world where the word ‘I’ is increasingly becoming prevalent it is good to know that there are people who want to share and harmonise. I only wish that some commercial /giant multi-nationals companies and governments could do more.