THE Loddon Murray Cycling Club has again done a fantastic job raising funds for Kerang District Health.
The club conducts a raffle yearly as part of the Murray to Moyne cycling fundraising event.
This year the club raised $6,270.
“All of the money raised from the raffle, donations and sponsorships of riders goes into the kitty, which gets passed on after the raffle to Kerang District Health,” LMCC president Brent McKnight said.
“Some businesses will donate if one of their employees is riding, and we welcome any business or person who wants to donate money.
“We do have some sponsors on our riding jersey who have contributed to the club, and they get some advertising through that, but predominately our funds come through the raffle that gets sent out to households in and around Kerang.”
The ride was conducted in early April, starting in Echuca and finishing in Port Fairy the following day, but the raffle was drawn only recently with prizes of $1,000 for first place, $500 for second and $300 for third.
All the prizes are gift vouchers to be spent at local businesses in Kerang.
Mr McKnight is hoping for an improved effort for next year’s ride, which will be the 28th straight year the club has taken part.
“We were a bit down this year, but it was still a good effort,” he said.
“We usually raise between eight to ten thousand and have a few more riders, but COVID-19 has impacted us.
“Hopefully, we pick things up and we’re looking to convert from the old paper raffle to the new online version to make it more accessible for people to buy tickets.”
The club will start training again soon and is looking for new participants.
“There are some members that haven’t stopped training, but we generally pick it up once the football/netball season finishes up when it’s a bit warmer.
“Below 10 degrees is my cut-off.
“This year was a bit of a battle, so we’ll try and get a few more riders interested this year – ideally, the perfect number is 18 to have groups of five or six as it’s a relay event.”1st prize $1,000: Maree Hunter, Kerang
2nd prize $500: Tarnia Morsom, Kerang
3rd prize $300: Colin Nethercote, Kerang
