Lynn’s Lines
It’s been an extraordinary week for our Club, culminating in an amazing day on Sunday with our very first Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride. Bit of a chilly start for the riders from Bega way but sunshine in Narooma gave them a warm welcome.
We had an amazing turnout (see report below) with a great selection of bikes for everyone to check out plus an extraordinary amount raised for Men’s mental health and prostate cancer research. Many thanks especially to Françoise, John Cunningham and David for all their hard work. Food van gross takings were $667.64 plus $184 from the wishing well, plus a $280 donation from Southbound Escapes for the Club to pay directly for Australian prostate cancer research.
Sunday’s huge success followed a fascinating talk at last Thursday’s Business Networking Breakfast by Georgie Staley about the Narooma MTB Trails and its potential to contribute to year-round tourism. (See report below.)
This Thursday our guest speakers from Canberra – Brian Goldstraw on Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and Sandra Goldstraw on Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) – are District chairs for these groups and it should be a great evening. Hopefully we will see lots of visitors and guests. Then it’s all hands on deck for the Market this Sunday, starting and finishing one hour later.
THIS WEEK
Thursday 23 May 6 for 6.30pm at Narooma Golf Club. Dinner Speakers Brian Goldstraw on Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) and Sandra Goldstraw talking on Rotary Oceania Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC). Both are the District chairs for these groups. Please make sure you book in with John Rungen by noon Tuesday.
This Sunday 26th May: Our May Market. John Rugen will circulate the roster.
The Week that Was
Our Narooma DGR voted a huge success
Our Club’s first ever Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride (DGR) on Sunday for Prostate Cancer Research and Men’s Mental Health was a great success. Our stoked DGR coordinator Françoise Cleret said the response far exceeded expectations with an amazing 73 riders, ‘dressed dapper’. What’s more our DGR raised $10,867 which is “just awesome”. Some riders came from as far as Merimbula and Batemans Bay, many riding classic or vintage styled motorbikes. They enjoyed the day so much they are coming again next year.
The Narooma ride was one of almost a thousand DGRs held on Sunday across 105 countries. They bring people together to celebrate these bikes and the ‘gentlefolk’ who ride them, at the same time raising awareness and funds for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health. Françoise said Sunday’s ride showed that coming together, dressing ‘dapper’ and the ride itself do create more awareness and funds by having fun in style.
All funds raised by the DGR will be invested by the official charity partner Movember in both local and global prostate cancer research and men’s mental health programs.
David McInnes did a wonderful job organising the mini Expo market, the NATA site, and the route markers. A big thanks to the Fire + Rescue team (see photo), and all the other markers for ensuring no one took a wrong turn, and to our food van and barbecue team. It was a great effort by everyone.
The 20km leisurely ride went past the golf course and the Plaza, down Forsters Bay Road, Bettini Lane and Riverside Drive, over the bridge, Dalmeny Drive, Ocean Parade, Noble Parade, swung around the caravan park, Mort Ave to the Highway, and back to NATA Oval.
Southbound Escapes (in the Information Centre) donated $280 for our Club to pay directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (Research); this included $180 from coffee sales.
Business Breakfast
Twenty-eight people booked in for last Thursday’s Business Networking Breakfast to hear guest speaker Georgie Staley on the new and extremely popular Narooma MBT Trails. Inspired by her and partner Dave O’Brien’s mountain bike experiences overseas and the revitalisation that MTB trails had given to small towns, they co-founded Narooma Mountain Bike Club which has now opened 84km of quality trails in Bodalla State Forest. That’s thanks to a $4.3m grant from the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund and the hard work of volunteers. The trails are designed to assist in developing more year-round tourism opportunities for towns devastated by the 2019/20 bushfires. Narooma’s MTB Trails are independent of Council.
Narooma’s acclaimed trails have been constructed by experts and already have a reputation for being well maintained, mostly the work of volunteers. Maintenance and marketing is done on a shoestring budget, funded by many local sponsors and donations, assisted by some remarkable social media.
Georgie said there can be up to 300 people on the trails at any one time, and so far they are averaging 5,000-6,.000 cyclists a month riding Narooma’s Trails. They are currently working on a Dalmeny link. Already they are seeing Mountain Bike Tours developing with 5-6 MTB destinations across the South-east. Consensus among local businesses present was mountain bikers tend to be happy tourists. Many local businesses are already seeing benefits.
Out and About
Bega Valley’s RYDA a success
Over three days, 290 Year 11 students from seven Bega Valley and Monaro Schools attended the Rotary Youth Driver Awareness (RYDA) programme at Frog’s Hollow, near Bega, last week. The schools were Bombala, Bega, Lumen Christi, Eden Marine, Jindabyne, Cooma Monaro and South Coast Anglican College. (Eurobodalla’s RYDA was also held reecently.)
The programme is supported by Bega Rotary, led by Eric Johnston who has been organising the program for 18 years. Lunch was provided each day by Bega Lions, Pambula Rotary and Merimbula Lions. Tathra Lions, Bega Rotarians and community volunteers assisted students. The students were kept engaged with the six modules of Road Choices, Mind Maters, I Drive, SOS, crash survivors and the Stopping demonstration.
NO MEETING NEXT WEEK
That’s because it’s the fifth Thursday in the month.