Hounslow

The West London Queer Project (WLQP) is a non-profit organisation which aims to connect, support and give voice to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and other sexual and gender identifying (LGBTQ+) people in West London. It improves the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the area, as well as offering fun events, a safe space, a welcoming, supportive and safe environment to uplift, empower, and connect as well as advocacy, awareness-raising and change making activities among local policy-makers.

With this as a goal, and also to raise money and awareness about Motor Neurone Disease, WLQP is putting on its second 10km Pride Walk through West London. They have asked GoodGym for some help making this a success, specifically for marshals along the route. This will be a super fun, supportive, uplifting event to be involved in! Not only that, but there will be free lunch and a free drink included for all volunteers during the celebration following the walk, with a line up of drag acts taking over The Black Lion!

Please see below for the details (the organisers will also be setting up at Furnival Gardens from 8am that morning, so if you'd like to get there earlier to help with this please feel free)

Marshals are to arrive at Furnival Gardens for 9:15am, and plan is for a briefing meeting just after that, and then to let that group depart to their marshalling points at around 9:45am, about a 30 min head start from the rest of the walkers.

Marshal 1 & 2 - to manage each side of Hammersmith Bridge. This will be busy as it’s just a few minutes into the walk, so most people will arrive at the same time. The bridge has a very narrow exit to the Thames Path, so the marshals on duty here will need to manage the flow of our participants, but also the public who use the bridge. We expect that all walkers should have crossed the bridge by around 10:30am - so these two marshals could either decide to complete the walk if the wish, or they could return to Furnival Gardens to help with the clean up and move to The Black Lion - they could even move on to marshal towards the end of route by going in the reverse direction (marshal 10 & 11 noted below).

Marshal 3 & 4 - to manage Chiswick Bridge - roughly 5km into the route. Marshal on the south side to direct people to leave the Thames path and cross over the bridge, marshal on the north side to direct people back to the Thames path - which has a H&S risk as the initial off path from the bridge leads to a boat club which could be busy on a Saturday morning, and there is a short part (just a few metres) where there is no pavement so all participants will have to walk on the road.

Marshal 5 & 6 - place at Dan Mason Drive (just to the west of Barnes Bridge, roughly 7km into the route). This area has a short spot where the Thames path is closed off due to building work, meaning that participants have to walk on the road, which has an additional concern as there is a blind bend which can be difficult to see if a car is coming along too - plus, there are rugby and cricket clubs, gyms etc here too, meaning that on a Saturday morning it could be busy with car traffic too!

Marshals 7 & 8 - Dukes Meadow / just to the east of Barnes Bridge Again, there are boat clubs here that use the Thames path to access the water, so having a marshal to manage crowds would be ideal, and a second a little further along to signpost people towards the rest facilities at Dukes Meadow which is just a few mins detour from the Thames path.

The 8 above are the priority, but if we have additional marshals we would also go with the following:

Marshal 9 at Barnes - just after the initial river walk along Castlenau, the path leads to the road and gets very narrow - Barnes itself can get very busy, so having someone available here would be ideal.

Marshal 10 & 11 - after Dukes meadow, the Thames Path links up with Chiswick Mall, which has very narrow paths, and can have a lot of public users, so having people around here would be ideal too.

The Black Lion - our end point, and where we will have a celebration party - we will need some volunteers to hand out medals and lunch vouchers to people as they return.

Contact on the day - is Joe (07834469175).

Where exactly to meet: For people happy to help with set up - 8am at Furnival Gardens (W6 9DG) For route marshals - 9:15am at Furnival Gardens

We anticipate that all walkers should have completed the route by around 1pm.. and we already have two WLQP volunteers happy to walk at the back of the crowd, and they will let each marshal know that they are the final people as they are passing.

What to bring:

Water/Water bottle. In terms of clothes, WLQP are going to suggest to participants to embrace their colourful side, so if people want to dress up, rainbow flags, colourful boas, wigs, etc etc.. we’re all for it, and rainbow accessories will be available at the start point at Furnival Gardens or a first come first serve basis.