Reading Buses has announced the cancellation of its open day. The operator said that it had no other option than to cancel the fundraising open day, which was scheduled for June 28, due to the current Coronavirus situation.
Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, Robert Williams, said: “As the current restriction on movement and ban on mass gatherings continues, we have been having discussions about our charity partnership and our open day. We decided that, unfortunately, we have no option than to cancel the open day this year.
“First and foremost is the safety of our employees and customers – even if the current situation is resolved by the end of June, we wouldn’t feel comfortable holding a mass gathering so close to such tragic events. Postponing the event until later in the year would also present further challenges which would then be difficult to overcome.
“Secondly, organising the open day is a huge undertaking, and with many of our employees on furlough there simply isn’t enough time or the resources to do the event justice – especially if we kept to the original date.”
He went on to say that the company will be extending their partnership with Sport in Mind for a further year.
“As Sport in Mind have already lost a couple of months of ‘proper’ fundraising time and with the cancellation of the open day meaning the single biggest fundraising event will not happen, we thought it only fair that we extend our partnership with them until December 2021.”
“We are hopeful that the newly extended partnership will allow all our customers and employees to get behind the charity and help to raise even more money for this very worthy cause.”
Neil Harris, founder of Sport in Mind, said: “Sport in Mind are very pleased to be able to extend our partnership with Reading Buses into 2021. Everyone connected to the charity was excited about working closely with Reading Buses on their open day and various events over the spring and summer, but due to the current challenges we all face it was feared we may be deprived of this opportunity. Sport in Mind are thrilled to learn that we’ll be able to continue to work with Reading Buses throughout 2021 and will look to run the best, most fun open day ever.”
