SERV - Service by Emergency Rider Volunteers

SERV News...

See all of the latest SERV news below.

News...

Mums on Bikes

19 August 2007
How a small idea over a coffee became a reality.....
We all love riding our bikes and decided that we wanted to raise money for charity while doing something we enjoy. We will be riding the A-Z of pubs on Sunday 19th August. We will start at our "A" pub at about 7.30am and will visit each pub, in turn, in alphabetical order, throughout the day with our support crew taking a photo at each one. We will travel as far west as Hove and as far east as Rye, covering approximately 180 miles. Why not visit the Mums on Bikes website..

More New Safety Tabbards!

20 March 2007
New safety tabbards
ROK have very kindly donated 30 safety tabbards for use by SERV members whilst on duty Many thanks.

New Safety Tabbards!

20 March 2007
New Safety Tabbards!
As part of their ongoing support for SERV, Devitt have very kindly donated 30 safety tabbards for use by SERV members whilst on duty Many thanks.

SERV Branches out

14 March 2007
SERV Branches out
Back at the 2004 AGM, Steve Darnley raised his hand and muttered yes when the committee position of Membership Secretary raised its ugly head. As part of his new role, Steve was to collate names from out of our area, in the hope that enough volunteers would be found to start a new SERVice there. At Silverstone last May, the fruits of Steve’s labour finally paid him a visit!
Gareth Cregg, Richard Freeth, Mel Smith and Dave Sammons bought Oxford SERV for tea! Dave Sammons takes up the story...............
"Well, it was about two years ago I was in Tesco, bored, and bought a copy of MCN. They were running an article about some little known group called SERV who helped out during the London bombings. Thinking to myself "Yeah, I'll have some of that" I managed to get Dean Wickham's number and give him a bell. Unfortunately he was several hundred feet above Windsor at the time. A couple of weeks later and I got an e-mail from a chap called Steve Darnley, saying thanks for my interest, but Bicester was a bit far out of range for now.
If only I'd known what was coming - I would have run a mile there and then!
Two years on, and SERV (Oxon, Bucks & Northants) is good to go. We've got around 20 members, many of whom are advanced instructors or observers, spread across a huge geographical area from High Wycombe to Swindon - that's about the same as the SERV Sussex, Kent and Surrey boundaries but with one huge difference - we're covering it all as one group! We're hitting the high times at the moment, but there have been lows, and I know several people have been tempted to walk away - including myself. But support (and threats) from Steve, Dean and Beth has been superb, and even when I was about to move up north to try and escape it all Steve threatened to hunt me down and drag me back kicking and screaming! Once we're up and running properly, it will be massively down to these three guys! Thank you!
Currently we're on a high! We've just got our first banner and have numerous events lined up for the year, from shopping centre collections to The Bulldog Bash. We're also hoping to send a party down to the GEMS Garden of England show to meet up with a lot of you. We also have the support of Thames Valley Police and I am at present organising formal training with their motorcycle instructors. Only this morning I received an e-mail from a company offering to buy us a marquee! Couple that in with our own members offering donations to purchase t-shirts etc and we're well on our way! We've had radio news run an article on us as the main news headline for a day, and television news are keen to do a piece on us. We're coming together properly now, flip, we even have a committee!!!!!!!
All we need now is for the hospitals to start using us. We're new, and untried, and that's the biggest problem. Fortunately there are some local blood managers who are keen to use us, and they're doing everything in their power to get permission to do so (I think they're sick of our voices on the phone very few days now). Luckily some of them also know people who already use SERV, so you guys in the south are helping us without even knowing it!
It has been hard, but once all the hard work pays off and we get our first phone call it'll all be worth it. Nobody ever said getting a brand new group off the ground would be easy, but with the support of Dean, Steve, Beth, and Mel Smith (our fab treasurer! Who has given me a huge amount of help) we're very nearly there - SERV's first "satellite" group in 26 years!
Today Oxon, Bucks & Northants - tomorrow total UK coverage!"

New Hospital on-board

14 March 2007
Oxon, Bucks & Northants have 1st hospital on board
Serv (Oxon, Bucks & Northants) have announced that they have their first client hospital, the High Wycombe General Hospital.

Dave Sammons, group co-ordinator said "This is hugely exciting for us. It's taken a lot of hard work by my very dedicated team but we've finally got their, our first client! I must take this opportunity to thank Steve Darnley, Dean Wickham, Beth Hilton, our local committee and all of our volunteer riders for their hard work and dedication in getting us to this point. Now the work really starts!"

The group are also talking to the Oxford Heamophilia Centre, Wexham Park Hospital (Slough), Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Alyesbury), Milton Keynes General and Northampton General with a view to them all becoming clients of the new SERV group.

Kent News Round-up

06 March 2007
Kent News Round-up
Kent SERV has been very busy fundraising and recruiting over the past six months. Recruiting has been very successful after various newspaper articles and radio interviews with Alan Pasterfield. So far we have managed to recruit enough members to have two people on every shift, with four coordinators handling the calls - we are in good shape!
The fundraising has gone very well, with the British Caravan Club donating and The Queen Public House has collected through a collection box and weekly bonus ball competitions. We have other collection boxes in-situ in various sites throughout Kent - thank you to the members who have helped with this.
This year we had two new hospitals coming on board - the return of the Medway Maritime (Chatham) and a brand new hospital - the Benenden Hospital. Next year we are hoping to get another hospital (or more!) to keep our Kent members busy!
In all 2006 has been a very successful year for SERV Kent.

New Gazebo

09 September 2006
Hurstwood Park League of Friends donate to SERV.
Hurstwood Park League of Friends chairman, Brian Gubbin, came down to visit SERV at the Brighton Speed Trials this month to view the recently donated gazebo and meet some of the volunteers. Hurstwood Park League of Friends have donated the full cost of the new gazebo to SERV. Many thanks.

British Turntable

02 August 2006
British Turntable have donated a second motorcycle turntable.
British Turntable have donated a second motorcycle turntable. This turn table is suitable for use with the dedicated Pan, and means that each bike now has it's own turntable.

TomTom

02 August 2006
TomTom have donated a second TomTom RIDER navigation system.
TomTom have donated a second TomTom RIDER navigation system. The new unit has been connected to the dedicated Pan for use by SERV's riders.

31 July 2006
BCC Support
The British Caravan Club (BCC) have supported SERV for three years, raising over £2000. Monies raised are from the pockets of each member of the club, raised through events like raffles, fun events, etc. Members from Kent SERV were honoured to be invited to their Christmas event to collect a HUGE cheque. The BCC have chosen SERV as their charity for 2006 as well. SERV is extremely grateful to the members of the BCC for their generosity and continued support. THANK YOU!

SET&FCG

31 July 2006
SET&FCG
The South East Trailer & Folding Caravan Group, who have members throughout Kent, Surrey and Sussex have supported SERV for seven years, raising over £3000. Monies raised are from the pockets of each member of the club, raised through events like raffles, auctions, Jackie's scones, fun events, etc. Members from Kent SERV have tried to visit the SET&FCG once a year just to say Thank You. The hospitality riders are given is great. Lovely tea! The SET&FCG have chosen SERV as their charity for yet another year! SERV is extremely grateful to the members of the SET&FCG for such generosity and continued support. THANK YOU!

Nick Burberry

25 July 2006
Nick Burberry
SERV is most grateful to Mr Nick Burberry of Sittingbourne, Kent who raised so much money for SERV on a two-day cycle event. Nick cycled round Rutland Water, a distance we think of approx. 15-20 miles. Half was done one day, the other half the next day. Riders from SERV would prefer a motor on a bike but Nick did this, purely to raise funds for SERV, on a pushbike! Nick, SERV thanks you very much.

CSiS

20 June 2006
The Civil Service Insurance Society have donated £1000
The Civil Service Insurance Society have donated £1000 to SERV. The money has been donated so that SERV can purchase safety equipment.

Autocom

12 May 2006
Autocom donate more audio equipment.
Autocom have just donated a full intercom/audio system for the SERV's Pan European. This is in addition to the system already provided for SERV's Honda Deauville.

Classic Bike Show

17 April 2006
Collection at Classic Bike Show
A great day was had by all at The Classic Bike Show at Ashford. Not least the site of Chris Baker, Colin Hills, Claire Pasterfield, Paul Armstrong and me (Alan Pasterfield) trying to put the marquee up with no instructions with seasoned exibitors looking on. Still we managed it. We collected £161.48 from the day, which wasn't bad as most show-goers were looking for something very cheap in the parts department! Paul's wife Tracy and kids came along, Danielle 7 and Emma 5, who charmed money out of the passersby. In fact it was a bit embarrassing watching them as they were doing it very well. Paul's Mum, Brenda, and Martin Simmons were also on hand to collect. Nick Gerolemou made a fleeting visit to hand over a 25 year anniversary sign to hang over the marquee. Thank you to everyone who helped out, and a big thank you to Colin Hills for transporting the marquee down there with very little notice.

New Bike!

17 March 2006
New Bike!
SERV is pleased to announce that it has just purchased a second dedicated motorcycle.

The new bike (pictured, foreground) is a fully liveried Honda Pan European ST1300.

Any members who attended the RSPCA pet food run in February may recognise the bike, those who couldn't make it will be able to see it at future SERV events. Images of the new bike can be seen in the Gallery.

County Mall Collection Day

25 February 2006
County Mall, Crawley. Collection Day
The day started well. Dave R and Dave T headed towards Beth's for early morning tea and to collect our new 4 metre high flag Dave R's Citroen wobbled along in the cross winds up the A23 and Dave T on the Deauville carried out his switching to reserve with one hand while overtaking a white van trick on the A24. So far so good! Then it was on to County Mall to meet up with Steve D on a Demonstration Honda Pan European. After contacting the very helpful Mall security staff we had to ensure that the bike's fuel tanks were empty and batteries disconnected. We set up the display stand with bikes rampant at each end on the main ground floor and then it was time to wait for the nice folks who were going to give us their hard-earned cash.

The day proceeded very well. Our highly experienced team of skilled operatives (Beth, Steve D, Arthur, Dave T, Dave B and old dangerous Dave himself) got to work exchanging SERV bugs, keyrings, brochures, interesting chat up lines (and by rumour about Dave T – body fluids) for the shoppers' cash. We had interest from a number of potential riders and the Crawley folks gave generously. Things were going well when at lunch time Mother Dean arrived so it was "the bikes are the wrong way round, put the flag in the middle" and finally "I'm off to take the photos".

The day worn on, our feet got sore, lots of coffee was consumed, the money rolled in (well clinked anyway) and then it was time to pack up, get the bikes fit for the road and join the happy throng of traffic back to the south coast.
Didn’t we do well?

Article by Old Dangerous Dave.

TomTom RIDER Donated

21 December 2005
TomTom donate a TomTom RIDER navigation system to SERV
TomTom have just donated a TomTom RIDER navigation system to SERV for use on the dedicated response bike. SERV riders also receive a generous discount on TomTom RIDER purchases.

PeopleTalk Interview

13 November 2005
PeopleTalk.org record a broadcast with SERV, P&H Motorcycles, MCN and Maidstone Hospital
www.peopletalk.org is a audio documentary site about people, their lives, stories and anecdotal social history. It's about ordinary folk, not famous people. In November 2005 Dean Wickham, David Romaine and Stephen Darnley from SERV, along with Paul (Managing Director of P&H Motorcycles, Brighton), Dan (Products editor, motorcyclenews.com) and Jane Leftley (Hematology Manger, Maidstone) participated in a peopletalk online documentary, disussing the activities of SERV and how each person is involved with the charity. You can listen to the documentary here (Story No. 11).

Kent at Sittingbourne

22 October 2005
Kent visit ASDA in Sittingbourne
We [Kent] had a successful day at ASDA Sittingbourne raising funds. I would like to thank Graham Robinson, Chris Baker, and Graham Wright for their support, and look forward to seeing them at the Camping Club’s presentation day.

I will start organising Kent’s collection dates for next year in January and as usual will let you know what is arranged as soon as I know.

Wishing you all the Christmas that you want and a good New Year.

Article by Brian

Ace Café, Brighton Burnup

11 September 2005
Ace Café, Brighton
We arrived at Madeira Drive, dark and early to a rather disorganised set up regime. Eventually we sorted out our location (about a mile down the Drive) and set up the display tent, in between bump starting Ian Stroud’s bike and trying to find some breakfast tea (as Dean’s thermos broke journeying down on the SERV bike).

Well the day worn on and the biker crowd thronged in. We were flanked by Sussex Police and American Motorcycles so we had a lot of passers-by with their families. So it was "Would you like a SERV bug son? OK Mum/Dad that will be a £1, Ta very much!"

It was very, very busy with bikes arriving by the thousand (no kidding). There were bikes everywhere and just to be helpful we stored peoples' helmets for a contribution of course. Highlights of the day were letting parents photograph their kids on the SERV bike, closely examining the Sussex Police Yamaha R1 (strictly for training courses of course!), spotting which biker (male or female) had the most tattoos (first on their bodies and then on their heads) and then the arrival of the Tuttles of the Orange County Choppers complete with police escort and filming by Discovery Channel and thousands (yes really) of fans.

The weather stayed fair and consequently we had a very good day collecting as many people were very generous but the downside was our sore feet and the long queues for cups of tea.

Very well done and many thanks everybody who grafted away over two long days to collect this terrific amount. This was a fantastic effort by everyone concerned.

Attendees roll of honour:
- Dave and Sue Godden
- Don and Sheila Waller
- Ian and Malcom Stroud
- Dave Tyson
- Arthur Kennard
- Dean Wickham
- Richard O’Neill-Roe
- Mike Mara
- Jane
Article by Dave Romaine

Brighton Speed Trials

10 September 2005
SERV attend the national speed trials at Brighton, Madeira Drive
We set up our display tent just outside the entrance to the paddock in Madeira Drive at 7am accompanied by the noisy arrival of many types of competition cars and bikes.

The weather held fair and we set out our wares and got ready to relieve passers-by of their cash. The petrol heads and photographers among us benefited from the SERV reflective jacket as it gained free entry into the pits for a good look at the cars and bikes and the start line activity.

As the day went on we were kept busy telling various car owners not to park next to the SERV stand. Again the SERV jacket gave us authority as they thought we were marshals!

We had a reasonable day collecting cash with the highlights being the competition between Don Waller and Dave Godden as to who could get the best looking female to sit on their bikes and Don’s ‘see if you can put enough money in the bucket on my bike’s wing mirror to tip the bike over’ offer – very popular with the females and young people.

However while it didn’t rain the seagulls had it in for us, as they scored direct hits on the SERV bike, Dave Godden and his Goldwing. We finished the day at 5pm and got the SERV kit ready for next day in Madeira drive.

Article by Dave Romaine

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