Belvoir used its recent annual conference to launch a Route 166 charity fundraiser, which will commence in August 2022.

Belvoir’s franchise director, Ian Maclean, will celebrate his 60th birthday in August by embarking on a month-long motorbike journey from John O’Groats to Lands’ End, visiting every Belvoir office en-route and raising thousands of pounds along the way.

Maclean, who is a keen motorcyclist, will be teaming up with industry figure, Andy Soloman. The duo will be riding high performance electric motorbikes that are currently being hand built in Italy by Energica Motor Company and donated for the duration of the challenge.

Maclean, who has worked for Belvoir for 15 years, said: “Pre-pandemic I’d always dreamed of celebrating my ‘big’ birthday by completing the famous Route 66 in America,” said Maclean, who has worked for Belvoir for 15 years.

“Obviously, this was not possible during lockdowns, but after chatting to Andy Solomon, the idea for Route 166 was born. Route 166 will be a four-week charity trip from John O’Groats to Lands’ End, visiting all of Belvoir’s 166 offices. We were also keen to promote the idea of environmentally friendly travel, and we are incredibly grateful to Energica Motor Company for their generous offer of providing us with these amazing high performance electric motorbikes. We will be riding these beautiful bikes for six days a week, and travelling over 3600 miles in 27 days, so the logistics of charging the bikes and keeping to a very tight schedule will be an interesting challenge!

“Andy and I have chosen to raise money for two fabulous charities – Crisis and Just a Drop. Route 166 really does have the potential to raise thousands of pounds, as we are encouraging all our franchisees, plus their landlords and tenants to get involved. Supporters can donate to Crisis and Just a Drop via the Belvoir 166 fundraising page on GivenGain, or they can donate to local charities in their area, and we will add the total to the money raised.

“We are very excited about the challenge and I’m looking forward to meeting as many people as possible at Belvoir’s offices along the way. We’ve had special Route 166 T-shirts printed with the names of all Belvoir offices and hope to see lots of our supporters wearing these when we visit!

“We launched Route 166 at the Belvoir Annual Conference in March, and we are delighted that fundraising is well underway already. I believe that Belvoir’s Route 166 has the potential to be truly memorable and special. Belvoir has a total of 166 offices nationwide, and together, we can make a difference!”

Davide Palumbo from Energica Motor Company commented: “We are really proud to support this wonderful project. Thanks to Energica Motorcycle, Ian and Andy will be able to ride over 3600 miles on no-emission motorbikes, making this a very environmentally-friendly charity fundraiser, for which we wish them every success!”

Belvoir CEO Dorian Gonsalves added: “Ian has always been an innovative and highly enthusiastic member of Belvoir’s Central Office team, but this Route 166 charity fundraiser idea really is inspired! Ian will be celebrating 15 years of working for Belvoir on 20th August, and his 60th birthday is on 28th August, so it is going to be a month that he will never forget! I am sure that everyone at Central Office, as well as all our franchisees, will get behind Ian and Andy on Route 166 and will be keen to help them raise as much money as possible for charity. I believe the closest Belvoir office to John O’Groats is Belvoir Inverness and their final destination will be Belvoir Plymouth & Saltash which is the closest Belvoir office to Lands’ End. We look forward to receiving regular updates from the team as they complete their epic journey.”