Serve and Protect launches the Play and Give Challenge

20 June 2023

Serve and Protect Credit Union has announced the launch of its latest wellbeing event – the Play and Give Challenge.

This follows the spectacular success of its #StayForceFit challenge in 2021 and 2022. The #StayForceFit competition was originally organised in February 2021 in response to the country’s third coronavirus lockdown. As a credit union, Serve and Protect wanted to improve wellbeing and encourage healthy competition at a difficult time for its members.

The result? Hundreds of police officers took part, with more than 138,000 kilometres being covered and representation from 20 different police forces across the UK. In the aftermath, cycling clubs and exercise groups were set up within police forces, and many participants expressed their joy at the amount of weight they had lost as a result of taking part.

The Play and Give Challenge sets out with a similar aim, to improve wellbeing among the credit union’s members. It will be held from 1 to 31 July 2023. Participants will be able to join one of five Strava Clubs, each club in support of a different charity close to the hearts of members. The club with the most distance covered by the end of July will win £2,000 for its chosen charity. Each subsequent charity will win a smaller prize, with a total prize pool of £4,200 being split between the charities.

Serve and Protect selected a charity to support for each of the markets it serves:

• Care of Police Survivors (COPS)
• Prison Service Charity Fund
• SSAFA
• The Fire Fighters Charity
• NHS Charities Together

How to take part

The Play and Give Challenge enables you to raise money for charity just by exercising! Here is how you can take part:

1. Choose the charity you would like to support from the list above. You can learn more about the work each charity does by visiting their respective websites.
2. Log in to Strava and join the club which is in support of your chosen charity. Find the clubs.
3. Get active by running, walking, cycling, or completing any other activity to contribute mileage to your club. You will need to allow Serve and Protect to follow you on Strava for your activity to be counted. Your mileage will then be added automatically.
4. Get your friends, family, and colleagues involved to further support your chosen charity. Anyone can take part in the challenge!
5. Follow Serve and Protect on social media to keep up to date with important updates and the latest weekly leaderboard. Find Serve and Protect’s social media channels.

Join the Play and Give Challenge today!

Serve and Protect is looking forward to seeing participants getting active to support their chosen charity and the friendly competition between each club.

Be a part of the Play and Give Challenge and do your bit for charity. Choose your charity and join the relevant club.