Some words of thanks.

"I would like to take the opportunity to thank Harborne Parish Lands, Harborne Parish Charity, Zurich Community Trust Local Programme & Bernard Higgins Trust for supporting our award winning Anti Bullying Campaign which is again underway in schools around the Birmingham & Midland area. We look forward to working in many schools in the near future with many appointments made & some negotiation of dates ongoing to fit around existing school programmes. As ever, we are keen to work with any charity, funding provider & school/youth organisation/official body to further the campaign & prevent lives being ruined by bullying. Stay strong, talk, talk, talk."

Big Dave.

Anti Bullying Campaign update April 29th 2016

We've been quiet for the last few months, but that doesn't mean nothing is going on. Dave has been delivering a series of Anti Bullying presentations to the pupils of Newtown Primary School in Sandwell whilst also engaged in building the structure of the Big Dave Community Interest Company. 

Funding is the most difficult obstacle to delivery - whilst there is demand & interest from schools to tackle the things that Dave can help with, the budgets have been cut & as mentioned previously many of the partnerships that existed between schools & police where the campaign was organised have simply disappeared.

217 grant funding bodies have been investigated since November 2015. Of those 217, we appeared to fit the criteria of 35. 14 rejected us outright. 18 have not yet decided or replied either way. 3  have said yes, we will help. 

We're truly grateful to Harborne Parish Charity, Harborne Parish Lands & Zurich Community Trust Local Programme for backing us. We'll be making some noise along the way about what we're doing & where we've been. Onwards!

Angel of strength Big Dave with Fr. Graeme Richardson of St. Peter's Church Harborne.

Big Dave's Buddy Scheme adopted in Sandwell School.

Following the success of Big Dave's visit to Newtown Primary School (Sandwell) on 18th November last year, headteacher Karen Godwin has engaged the Angel of Strength to introduce the buddy scheme to year four over the coming term in a number of weekly sessions. Building on the successful model Dave has piloted elsewhere, pupils will be encouraged to become positive contributors during lessons that encompass health, wellbeing, citizenship, exercise, nutrition which are all components of the ongoing anti bullying campaign. 

Dave says: "Big Dave's Buddies is a scheme where young people in a school, community or youth club act as leaders/peer mentors, leading by example. The buddies have a special status & are expected to be pro-active in prevention of bullying & anti social behaviour. Both Karen Godwin & I believe the school should be the heart of a community where good things emanate outwards."

For more information on how the buddies scheme could be implemented in your school or organisation please get in touch:

Pitching to the World.

Guinness World Records colouring book featuring Big Dave.

The picture above is a good metaphor of how it feels to pitch to the world. Whatever the benefits & opportunities offered, even the best ideas are often glanced over with a cursory frown. If presented over the phone or in an unimaginative setting on a grey January Monday morning when it's raining, we're really up against it. Luckily the enthusiasm Dave has to exert his muscles & help influence the young people of the world has not diminished since his anti bullying campaign began & the colourful effect he has on the young people can be seen in dozens of photos like this:

"It's my crusade," he told me a long time ago. "I'm in constant unrelenting competition with myself." His passion to make a difference is something that has always impressed me, from the day when I first saw the picture of him pulling Concorde to this morning when he called me with the latest update. It's easy to see why he's achieved so much.

There are over 180 testimonials if anyone cares to download the file & many more could be added, enough to make a replica telephone directory for Dave to tear in half on the days like today when we're waiting for the due process of multiple bureaucracies to catch up with his enthusiasm.

Dave keeps himself in shape, ready to pull a bus this afternoon if needed. With the weekend looming the offices are winding down & on Monday morning at 9am people might look at our paperwork again. If the sun is shining, maybe they'll see our vision in colour, rather than as a black & white line drawing:

If you would like Dave to make an anti bullying presentation to your school or group please email:

 or

Councillors, Members of Parliament & local authority officials who would like to lend their support are also encouraged to get in touch. 

Wrestling with technology & the forgotten plane pull.

Those who have followed Big Dave over the years will know that there have been a few websites & social media accounts. Dave doesn't spend a great deal of time on the internet, the gym being his favourite place to be between meals. Communication is vital though. If you're going to TALK TALK TALK, then some sort of electronic medium needs to be maintained. One of the challenges of the last few months has been to pull together some of the resources & pages. Passwords have been lost & some of the login email accounts had been deleted. Big Dave says: "Never Say Can't," so with some perseverance our previous domains - www.bigdavesworld.co.uk & the Tumblr account have been rescued, redirected & updated. There are a few twitter & youtube accounts floating about, but gradually they'll all be reigned back & pointed back to here. Have a look at a few of the videos found here.

In the meantime more archive material has emerged - pictures from the bus lift, Edinburgh military tattoo, airplane pulls, vehicle lifts & even more bus pulls. There have been a few surprises too. We often talk about pulling Concorde, the Boeing 747 & the B52 stratofortress, but Dave also pulled an RAF tornado, Vulcan bomber, Boeing 707 & an airbus that he'd forgotten all about until he clipping was found. With over a thousand vehicle pulls, the holding back of planes, motorbikes, cars, vans & horses, & the various lifts of vehicles completely off the ground there are a lot of stories to tell. We'll be putting these into some sort of order over the next few weeks so please check back again regularly.

The forgotten plane pull

Anti bullying campaign relaunch - Holly Hall Academy, Dudley. 13th January, 2016

The anti bullying campaign has been going a good many years now. It's easy to reel off the numbers - over a million children engaged, over 1050 vehicles pulled. There have been some real successes too, with many positive stories coming back via evaluations, anecdotes & testimonials. Relaunching the campaign today to a new audience at Holly Hall Academy in Dudley was no less special than the first presentation. 

Children have questions:

"Could you lift that table?" 

"What was the hardest lift you ever did?" 

"What's the most you've ever bench pressed?" 

"Would you have been a strongman if you weren't bullied?" 

"How much do you eat?"

"Which world record is your favourite?"

Questions flow back & forth, scenarios are discussed & the conversation develops. The magic of youth, their enthusiasm & ambitions unfold. "Never Say Can't," is a message that can be carried forwards. "Talk, Talk, Talk," similarly reminds the importance of communication. 

A report by Childline last week suggested that children are increasingly becoming lonely & unhappy. Sharing ambitions & talking about concerns is the start of teamwork, friendship & ultimately success. One child, one class, one school at a time.

The work goes on.

Help Big Dave beat Bullying!

Have you ever been bullied at work or at home?

If you or your loved ones have ever been affected by bullying you can empathise with the plight of its victims.

Angel of Strength Dave Gauder is a Multi World Record holder for feats of strength. He was bullied at school. With hard work, determination & self belief Dave went on to pull planes, trains, trucks, military hardware, lift enormous weights & restrain vehicles, boats, aircrafts & draught horses. Instead of competing for prizes or personal gain, he used his strength to start an ongoing campaign against bullying.

Dave inspires young people to believe in themselves & spreads his positive messages in all of his good work. Dave has a flair for empowering people, channelling confidence & inner strength.

Dave's anti bullying roadshow has successfully taken on some of the countries toughest schools in the most deprived areas. Children respect & listen to him. Schools community leaders, police & most importantly children rave about his anti - bullying campaign. There are hundreds of testimonials, some can be viewed here. 

Companies have supported Dave's work as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy (CSR) allowing us to continue the good work & raise awareness of the trauma bullying can cause. Looking in our own back yard, The Portrait of the West Midlands Document, (produced by the Office of National Statistics by Angela Medlan*) suggests that 15% of households are victimised at least once, so a presentation to a school of 500 pupils is potentially addressing 75 victims. This is based upon reported crime for the household. Of course, a lot of bullying is never reported. 

Big Dave Community Interest Company is a social enterprise that has successfully devised & developed programmes that support children & young people. Our work takes place wherever a need is identified. Dave has established Buddy Schemes in a cluster of Primary Schools which allow children to take personal responsibility (with support structures in place) to eradicate bullying amongst their piers. 

Dave won an Oyster Award, presented by the Home Secretary of the time (David Blunkett) for his work & is currently an ambassador for Birmingham #SU4BRUM. These accolades strengthens the platform as a community figure that Dave has established over many years. 

Dave Gauder has a proven track record for eradicating bullying. To continue his good work WE NEED YOUR HELP! Work that was previously funded by Community Safety Partnerships, police & local authorities has ceased under the cuts imposed on budgets. We now rely on grant funding & corporate backing to sustain the campaign.

Latest news from the NSPCC Childline suggest that the problems that face children & young people are not improving. Parallel articles in the Daily Mail Daily Telegraph The Times BBC Newsbeat & thirty other media outlets carry the story today (7th January 2016). We're trying to do something about it.

If you can help & would like to find out more, contact us now to discuss how we can integrate supporting our programme into your CSR Strategy. 

email: 

Thank you. 

*We take our population figures from publications produced by the Office of National Statistics which relates to the 2011 census & the 2014 estimates. Local council statistics are also used where needed for specific local information.

Lifting a Bus

One from the archives - often mentioned, but this is a fuller account:

 http://bigdavegauder.blogspot.co.uk/p/lifting-bus.html