Variety’s New Stanfords Sunshine Coaches
We are proud to be partnering with one of our long-term vehicle suppliers, HTC Belvedere, to provide Variety, The Children’s Charity, with multiple Fiat Ducato ‘Sunshine Coaches’.
Variety, The Children’s Charity
Variety is a fantastic children’s charity who we are incredibly honored to be working with. For over 75 years the chairty has been funding and delivering life-changing programmes to children and young people across the UK. The charity provides a range of different services, including grants for specialist disability equipment and wheelchairs that aren’t available through the government, memorable day trips through their Great Days Out prgramme, and of course, accessible transport for SEND schools and other non-profit organisations with their famous blue Sunshine Coaches.
The Sunshine Coach
Since 1949 over 5,745 Sunshine Coaches have been supplied by Variety. Each coach gives children the opportunity to explore places and experience different learning environments that they usually wouldn’t be able to visit. The Sunshine Coaches are used by a wide range of individuals for recreational and educational trips, transport for forest schools, transport for families visiting children in hospices, group transport for classes with wheelchair users and more.
Stanford Coachworks have now had the pleasure of supplying Variety with their famous Sunshine Coaches for almost two years. Depending on the end user, we provide Variety with custom-built Fiat Ducato minibuses which are individually converted to meet their accessibility requirements.
The Specification
In early 2023 we expanded to a second site, based in Kent, with multiple coachbuilding teams dedicated to building accessible and non-accessible Sunshine Coaches. Take a look at the specification of these vehicles below.
Based on L3 or L4 Fiat Ducatos
Easy to clean passenger seating (layout varies depending on end user)
Durable soft-feel interior lining
Manual side step
Colourful exterior signwriting
Non-slip floor covering
LED interior lighting
Skylight
First aid kit
Overhead storage area above the front cabin
Internal tail lift (for wheelchair accessible conversions)
Removable seat fixings (for wheelchair accessible conversions)
To find out more about Variety, The Children’s Charity and the fantastic work that they do, please visit their website by clicking here.