Reading Buses to hold virtual open week – with videos of the bus wash – to raise funds for Sport in Mind

IT’S ONE of the most popular days in Reading’s calendar, and it’s been given a new lease of life thanks to an ingenious online initiative.

The annual Reading Buses open day had been due to take place in July, but the fundraising event had to be cancelled due to coronavirus.

So, in partnership with Heritage Open Days, it’s going online from Monday, September 14 to Friday, September 18.

“We are aware there are a lot of open day supporters who were extremely disappointed because we had to cancel this year’s charity open day,” said Reading Buses’ chief executive officer Robert Williams.

“So to make sure people do not miss out on getting a look behind the scenes, and hopefully raise some money for this year’s Reading Buses charity Sport in Mind, we will be holding a virtual open week.

“It comprises a series of videos representing parts of the company which we know from past experience are extremely popular with our loyal open day visitors.”

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Activities include

The bus wash – a ride through the wash is one of the favourite open day attractions. They’ll take a look at how Reading Buses keep their buses squeaky clean and use rainwater as well as recycled water
The control room – a look behind the scenes to see how they keep their buses on time and how they keep Reading moving
The engineering workshop tour – seeing the engine of a bus and viewing their ‘station in the sky’ – the gas station up in the air which helps compress the gas to fill compressed natural gas (CNG) buses
The buses themselves – see lots of Reading’s multi-coloured buses.

It is suggested that viewers donate £2 to Sport In Mind after watching the videos by texting SIM 2 to 70085.

“In the past the control room and engineering workshop tours have normally been a sell-out, so this is a great opportunity to get a glimpse of what happens behind the scenes,” Mr Williams added.

“It will be appreciated that the inevitable cancellation of our open day presented a significant challenge as to how we could raise funds for our charity of the year.”

Neil Harris, chief executive officer of Sport in Mind, said that the charity was excited about the virtual open week.

“It presents the public with something fun and positive to do in these challenging times,” he said.

“This also helps raise money so our charity can deliver services to support local people experiencing mental health problems, particularly as the pandemic has had a huge impact on everyone’s mental health.

“As a Reading charity we’ve always loved Reading Buses open day and were disappointed when it had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. However, this is a fantastic initiative that will make up for not being able to run the open day in traditional fashion this year.”

The traditional Reading Buses open day last year raised more than £5,700.