Variety Spin 4 Kids has been part of the Children’s Charity’s event calendar for the past four years now, with the event first established as an outdoor team spin bike challenge.

The event this year however saw many corporates get involved virtually as a team building opportunity to see who could take out the six hour Kings Of Spin title.

Variety partnered with The Forum to bring the event concept to life. The Forum have been great supporters and helped build the event off the ground. For three years, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) have also been huge supporters as presenting partners, and have been a huge part of the event’s success.

NCIG CEO, Aaron Johansen said it’s great to get involved in such a great cause, especially in times such as these when funding is more necessary than ever before.

“NCIG were once again thrilled to partner with Variety the Children’s Charity to support Spin for Kids. The event has a really fun vibe to it, which our team enjoy, and anything that promotes a healthy lifestyle while raising much needed money for a great charity – we’re all for,” Aaron said.

“Even though COVID-19 prevented us from physically being together to compete, it was still great to see so many local businesses joining in online and participating in the event virtually.

“We’re already looking forward to the 2021 event–we’ve slipped a couple of places in the rankings so we’ve got some leg-work to do!”

Since its inception Variety Spin 4 Kids has raised over $100,000 to support local kids who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs.

Director of Venues at Newcastle University Sport (NUSport), Sally Hinchley said The Forum were keen to get on board and help support and raise money alongside the charity through the virtual event.

“The Forum is always proud to support the Spin 4 Kids event and taking the event virtual seemed like a natural fit,” she said

“Through the enforced COVID-19 lockdown period, online delivery was essential in keeping our members moving.”

This year, the event was due to be held in March as an outdoor event. It was shaping up to be an amazing day with over twenty teams registered and fundraising. However, COVID-19 hit and the event was postponed.

As the year went on, it became apparent that Spin 4 Kids couldn’t run in its normal form as a mass participation event, which is where the virtual event concept came to life.

The Forum had been running Virtual Workouts gym sessions virtual throughout lockdown, so the Variety team thought, “how easy can it be?”

With the help of Acrobat Removals, spin bikes were delivered to corporate and social teams around Newcastle.

Each team set up a screen and the streaming link for four hours of Spin Instructors leading the way–for a team to be crowned Kings Of Spin.

The event was a great success and with the fundraising efforts of those that participated raised over $29,000 for Variety.

It is hoped that Spin 4 Kids can return back outdoors in 2021 if restrictions allow but in the meantime if you are interested in getting involved please see the expressions of interest form.

To learn more about the winners of the Virtual Spin 4 Kids, click here.

IMAGE | Variety Charity take their Spin 4 Kids event online due to COVID-19 restrictions.