BRoW4 was created in 2014, because of my being a volunteer for the MAGPAS air ambulance charity. I helped to organise coffee mornings and other events to raise funds and awareness for the charity, and then came up with the idea of a Bike Run or Walk event, with two possible distances of 5km and 8km. This took place on Saturday 25th June 2015 at Ferry Meadows in Peterborough. We repeated the event in 2016 and added a 12km option as well as allowing dogs too.
To advertise the 2016 event as much as possible, I went to Ferry Meadows with flyers to hand out to people before the event. Many said that they did not live in the area, or that they supported other air ambulance charities. That got me thinking, and so I decided to open the event to support all UK air ambulance charities in 2017. The 4 was also added to BRoW so that the dogs were included in the name, as I am myself a dog owner and couldn’t imagine life without my 4-legged friends!
Since 2017 the event has got bigger and better, and in 2019 we decided to add live music to the event for the first time.
In 2021 we became a Community Interest Company 13173629. Our aim is to organise events for the local community not only to attend to our events but to help others who can help us organise and run these events.
2021 saw the first of many annual BRoW4 CIC community events at Sapley Playing Felds. Raising awareness for many charities but especially Magpas Air Ambulance. We are always grateful to those that help to make this event the success that it is becoming.
We are always on the lookout for volunteers to help at the making of these events and also the running off these events. If this is something that you would be interested in please contact me on anna@brow4.com.
BRoW4 CIC has also raised money for other non-Government or National Lottery funded charities in the past – the RNLI, the Dog’s Trust, Canine Partners, Therapy Dogs Nationwide, and Medical Detection Dogs. However, we are very proud to have been able to have helped others! In total, BRoW4 CIC has managed to raise over £20,000 so far!