Child Friendly Warwickshire

Child Friendly Warwickshire is the county's commitment to create opportunities for all children to be heard, happy, healthy, safe and skilled and everyone has a part to play. The programme has over 100 friends, made up of businesses and individuals, who share this commitment and offer to support young people in different ways. 

Godiva Ltd, Warwick based world leader in fire pump design and manufacture, is one of these friends. Last month the organisation hosted a bike day event to celebrate cycling and donated over 20 bikes to children in care and care leavers.  

The donation included balance bikes for toddlers getting on two wheels for the first time, firefighter style bikes with a matching siren and helmet, as well as mountain bikes for teenagers.   

At the event, before families arrived, Godiva Ltd colleagues participated in a team-building exercise where they were divided into teams to assemble the bikes from scratch. Each bike was quality assured by an expert before being handed over to the young people.  

A Godiva Ltd colleague said: “Today was all about developing children and keeping them happy. I got quite emotional just to see these children collect these bikes and see how happy they were. It was a really nice thing to do as an experience”.  

One of the foster carers attending the event said: “Thank you! We all had a lovely morning and I now have three very excited little children clamouring for me to watch how well they can ride their new bikes. There are varying degrees of success, but they are so chuffed!  The ice creams were very much appreciated too, thank you. All the Godiva staff were so supportive. Just a totally unexpected Friday morning - thank you.”  

Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Children and Families, Councillor Sue Markham said:

“It is wonderful to see the Child Friendly Warwickshire ‘Friends’ programme working exactly as intended –creating opportunities for children and young people in our county. I would like to thank Godiva Ltd for their generous donations, for their time in hosting the event itself and for building all the bikes. I am sure that the bikes will be gratefully received and used regularly. 

“We know that there are so many benefits to riding a bike: from improved mental and physical wellbeing to a healthier planet to more affordable and efficient travel so being able to support young people with access to a bike and supporting them to build their cycling skills at a young age is so important.”  

Megan Easley Godiva Ltd Human Resources Manager, added: “We are incredibly proud of our team for their enthusiastic participation in our community bike-building event. This initiative not only brought our employees together but also allowed us to make a meaningful impact on the lives of local children in care. By providing these children with new bikes, we hope to bring joy and a sense of adventure into their lives. Our commitment to supporting the community is at the heart of everything we do, and we look forward to continuing our efforts to make a positive difference.”  

If you are a Warwickshire business and want to know more about Child Friendly Warwickshire, please email childfriendly@warwickshire.gov.uk or visit the Child Friendly Warwickshire website: www.childfriendlywarwickshire.co.uk.