2006

Together with members of Gymnation including Malcolm, Scooter and Alf, Laurence, Mike, Harry and myself worked with Haroon and Imran (community workers) and got to pull a 13 tonne Fire Safety Tender from Gloucester Fire Brigade.

Late last summer Widden School held a summer fete and the highlight of the day was to be the Fire Engine pull. We were allowed to go to the Brigade Headquarters and spent 30-40 minutes trying out different members (first photo shows Scooter, Alf and myself having a go). We were happy that it wasn't going to be too much of an effort and with a little more than usual strength training looked forward to the day.

When the day arrived and the time to pull shortly thereafter was upon us we quickly found that the planned pull on grass at the rear of the school were the fete itself was being held proved something else compared to our much easier rehearsed pulls. Indeed there is a short clip on youtube showing 5 of us at once pulling with all our might. The tender barely moves even when, as can be seen in the background, at least ten of the children are also pushing.

We quickly decided to have the driver pull round to the front of the school where a combination of paved brick, tarmac and concrete proved more forgiving and everyone that then had a go was able to pull it on their own (second photo shows Malcolm) pulling all 13 tonnes (gross weight).

Money raised by local sponsorship and from the fete itself was presented at a short ceremony with the local newspaper doing a small feature at that time third photo shows the then Mayor of Barton together with a few of our motley crew and representatives from the charity Little Amazing Miricle Babies). We managed to get just short of £700.00 in 2006 - were aiming a lot higher this year.