Words & photos: Isaac Date
The Calverley Millennium Way Walk has celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Walkers assembled outside the Calverley Arms, with 45 registering for the full eight miles, while around 15 more registered for a half-way or part-way walk.
Calverley & Farsley councillor Craig Timmins made an appearance, followed shortly after by a surprise guest, Leeds West and Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves.
Ms Reeves spoke alongside event organiser David Williams for the 11am sendoff, where blue and yellow flares were fired to mark the start of the walk.
“This walk has been happening for 25 years, a really inspiring group of people from the community coming together to support local and national charities, and they’ve raised £35,000 for charity so far,” Ms Reeves said.
The nominated charities for this year were Diabetes UK and Yorkshire Air Ambulance. Over 25 years more than £35,000 has been raised from sponsorships and donations at the time of writing, but possibly more to come.
Although the start was chilly, walkers luckily hadn’t missed the sun, which showed for the walk a little late, but was finally out by around 11.20am yesterday (Saturday).
The Millennium Way Walk was started by Calverley Rotary Club as part of Project 2000, to celebrate the millennium in the village.
The route was inspired by the custom of ‘beating the bounds’.
This year’s walk has been dedicated to four of David’s neighbours, members of Calverley Rotary who have passed away. As he put it, this walk would not have been possible without them.
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