Just a few sleeps to go until the Christmas Lights Ride pedals off from the Riverside Tavern — riders of all ages decked in Santa suits and bikes draped with tinsel — to tour the best festive lights in Townsville. We caught up with Samantha Talbot who has signed up her excited family for the festive and active cheer and to support the awesome local cause of Ronald McDonald House North Queensland.
Why did you decide to get involved with the Christmas Lights Ride? Initially, I just thought it would be a fun thing for us to do as a family to celebrate the Christmas season and all go on a ride together. Then I looked more closely into it, and what it was raising money for, and thought it was a great initiative for us all to be involved in, especially the kids (Noah, 8; Isaac, 6; and Charlotte, 4).
Do you think it’s a good initiative for getting families active? Yes I do — it’s a fun activity that everyone in the family can easily be involved in. The fact that there will be other people around — with the added bonus of being able to dress your bike up — adds to the excitement surrounding the event.
The Christmas Lights Ride offers a great opportunity for kids to dress-up.
What are the kids most looking forward to about it? They do keep asking how soon they get to do it, so I think they are looking forward to it quite a lot! I think they will enjoy the fact that it’s at night, and the bikes are going to look pretty good with all the lights on them, plus they get to dress up in their Christmas outfits, which they always love to do.
What other active things do you like to do together? The kids like to go the various skate parks around town with their scooters, we go to The Strand for walks and swims at the rock pool and water park, Kirwan Aquatic Centre and North Shore Aquatic Centre (and go on the water slides!), plus walks along the river and up Castle Hill.
Are you doing any fundraising? Yes, I have set up a fundraising page for the kids where we already have some donations from friends and family. It makes it more motivating that it’s for a local charity that helps North Queensland families.
The ride route, including some of the Christmas lights houses (marked with a star).
Will you all be dressing up (even the adults!)? The kids will definitely be dressing up, but [husband] Cam and I won’t be — I don’t really get into dressing up much! We will be decorating our bikes though if that counts!
Anything else you’d like to add? Just that we are all looking forward to the ride, and I think it is a great way of getting families active together in a fun way, as well as raising money and awareness for a local charity.
Get involved
The Christmas Lights Ride 2015 is on Tuesday, December 8 and aims to spread the Christmas cheer. Find out more and sign-up for this family-friendly event here: https://thegotownsville.com.au/event/christmas-lights-ride-2015/.
You can go one step further and really embody the Christmas spirit and fundraise for Ronald McDonald House North Queensland to help the families of sick children. Just create an Everyday Hero Go Fundraise page here: https://www.everydayhero.com.au/event/christmaslightsride-2015. The highest fundraiser will go into the draw to win an adults’ or kids’ bike from Cycle de Vie. There’s still time!
Let’s Glow!!
TheGo Townsville is a proud sponsor of the Christmas Lights Ride 2015.
