St Columba’s Parish Church – Beat–the–Street NI
St Columba’s Parish Church recently entered an enthusiastic team into the Northern Ireland Beat–the Street game over a period of 7 weeks from 14 Sept – 2 Nov. The aim of the game was to walk, cycle, scoot or run as many journeys as you could during the 7 weeks. The team scored points on their way to and from work, school, shops or while walking their dogs by tapping their Beat the Street card on Beat Box sensors placed on lamp posts at intervals across Belfast.
As the weeks progressed so did the competitiveness as they fought to stay in the top 10 places of the leaderboard week after week. By the end of the game St Columba’s team of 30 people clocked up a total of 14,980 points and 725 miles. This amazing achievement put their at the top of the community group leaderboard earning a fantastic prize of £500 for the Church.
In addition to the prize money, members of the team reported a wide range of benefits. They mentioned quality time with their family, enjoying the dry Oct weather, meeting new people, being more active. The St Columba team dogs seemed to particularly enjoy it!
The prize money is a legacy of the game and is to be used in the spirit of the competition, i.e. to further engage members of the church and support them to be more physical active in their day–to–day life. We look forward to considering how best to use this money for that purpose and to support our Church.
