Blog post by Eddie, Silverfit Founder.

Hi All,

My first blog for some while, but how exciting it has been to see so many Silverfitters coming to our Nordic walk sessions since July – over 150 each week in 13 different parks across London! You have all been so great too in expressing your enthusiasm, and gratitude. Also thanks so much to all our reliable and popular Nordic walk instructors, assisted by our Nordic walk leaders. Aren’t we lucky to have such lovely parks in London? It was great too today to hear from Alicia who hasn’t been well for the last ten days but is recovering well and looking forward to seeing you all again at sessions.

And now the joy of restarting our indoor sessions as safely as possible, albeit we have had to limit numbers for some of our venues to ensure optimum safety for all. It was great too that our Susanne was able to take some photos of our sessions in Whitton – the enthusiasm of members was great – the joy of socialising again with that cuppa. So many of you too have chatted to me, Pete, Clare and our project managers and spoken of such appreciation of re-joining our fun Silverfit sessions. We have just started new sessions in Kingston, and Camden – all so exciting. All the details are on the session pages.

 

Typeform and sign ups
Thanks to everyone for making the effort to sign up via Typeform, as we know that is not easy for some, but it does help us so much to organise the sessions and I have heard great stories of some of you getting you kids or grandchildren to show you how to do it on your phones! We are also looking into using Eventbrite in future.
We need to build up numbers too, as there is still available space in some of our sessions. We know from our research that the most of you heard of Silverfit through word of mouth, so let’s get the word out. `Come and be a Silverfitter too??’

Media coverage
The media are ever more interested in good news stories about Silverfit and our older members. The TV presenter Louise Minchin told me she was keen to come to a session and now that she has left BBC Breakfast, I’ll be chasing her up to try and pin her down!
Many of you will remember Stefania who, as a journalism student at Kingston University, got an article published in Choice magazine in May about Silverfit, which helped to get her an internship at CNN. This then led to a great filming day in July at Crystal Palace, featuring Tai Chi with James and Nordic walking with Francesca. What a fun experience, and thanks so much to so many of you. Stefania also ran the Big Half for Silverfit in August and is hoping she will be able to share the CNN film soon, so watch this space.

Payments, and donations
As you all know, it no longer felt right to collect cash for attendance fees, so thanks to Alicia we have trialled some contactless Sum Up machines, and in other venues we have piloted JustGiving donations.
Here is a general link if you’d like to donate,  ensuring we can keep Silverfit going!
Bradley and I have worked on loads of fundraising bids over the last few months, and it was so good to see a Sport England payment into our bank today. Hopefully more to follow!
Many of you have asked too about the annual £12 membership fee – we have decided to restart this from January 2022, and I will be in touch in December to let you know how you can do this.

And finally, I’m off for hip surgery on Saturday – a consequence, I am told by the surgeon of too much cycling for a 78yr old! Ros Smith, our temporary Director, will be picking up my emails for a week or so. I had been a bit more worried about my recovery time till my friend Peter Scott sent me his video, of 3 weeks post similar surgery. With his permission to pass on, I hope you all enjoy as much as I do.