RIDING their Honda 110 cc bikes, 22 riders completed the Great Murray River Postie Bike Adventure at the weekend.
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Across three days, participants rode far and wide through the Campaspe, Murray River, Moira and Gannawarra local government areas.
And it was all in the name of charity, as the team raised much-needed funds for Echuca Regional Health’s cancer and wellness centre.
“We raised close to $30,000 which is a great effort from everyone involved,” organiser Dick Phillips said.
“This year just about every rider was either a local or a friend of a local. It’s extremely important that these are the people raising the money and it is going back into local facilities.
“We’ve done the Murray Meander for 13 years and this is our third Postie Bike Challenge. And we’ve also got the Biggest Blokes Lunch.
“All of the money raised from those events goes into the cancer facilities somewhere along the line. We’ve had a long relationship with ERH supporting their prostate cancer specialist, so this is just another way for us to give back.”
The Horizon Committee, which helps to run the event, has been involved in fundraising for cancer support services since 2004 and has raised more than $2 million through the Murray Charity Meander, Echuca Moama’s Biggest Ever Blokes lunch, the Little Blue Towels project and the Great Murray River Postie Bike Alpine Adventure.
Along the way, Dick said he and his fellow participants had learned just how important strong medical facilities were to communities.
“It’s all something we hope we don’t ever need but it’s good to know those services are available to us here,” Dick said.
“One of the things we like to do is help out the communities we visit, like last year when we visited Bright and put some money into the Albury-Wodonga cancer centre.
“When you’re able to help people out, it certainly gives you a good feeling.”
Planning has already started for next year’s event, with Dick and his fellow riders hoping to give back to an area they’ve visited several times before.
“We’ll be going up to Corryong next year. They were a fantastic help when we did the Murray Meander,” he said.
“When we’ve visited in the past, the locals were always willing to open up their properties for us to ride on, and we think it would be a great idea to give back to them after the challenges they’ve faced with the fires recently.”
The Great Murray River Postie Bike Adventure's participants would like to thank all their sponsors who donated to the event.
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