VMMA Fundraising for Zaidees Rainbow Foundation
Bairnsdale, Cranbourne and Moto GP at Phillip Island
2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th October 2008
The VMMA was invited by Alan Turner the father of Zaidee to assist in the raising of much needed funds and the awareness of both organ and tissue donations.
Zaidees Rainbow Foundation was privileged to be chosen by the Grand Prix Corporation to be the community based organisation to have sole rights to promote their organisation and raise funds at the Barry Sheen Ride from Bairnsdale on the Thursday and the big group ride from Cranbourne on Saturday along with the Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Phillip Island Race Track during the 3 days of the Moto GP.
This is not the first time the VMMA has been approached by the selected community base organisation that has been given the privilege to raise funds at the Moto GP, our last involvement was 2 years ago when we assisted the Leukemia Foundation to raise $38,000 over the four days.
Dean and Eric started the 4 day fundraising by riding down to Bairnsdale on the Wednesday evening to join with the motorcyclists who annually partake in the Barry Sheen auction night and the ride from Bairnsdale to the Phillip Island Race Track on the Thursday, this effort raised approximately $6000 which was a tremendous start to a great weekend at the Moto GP.
Friday morning a number of VMMA members met at the Tooradin Pelican Café at 8.00 am for a 8.30 am departure to Phillip Island, Chris, Sharyn, Glenn, Debbie, Mal, Phil and Brian.
L to R: Mal, Phil, Glenn and Brian at Tooradin.
We rode down to San Remo and met Dean at the bakery and received our official Moto GP passes that would gain us access to all the race track areas including the corporate tents and grand stands.
Dean then led us down to the race track, thankfully the motorcycles were given a piece of wood to go under the side stands for the grass car park area was a little soft, unfortunately Brian's BMW decided to park it self horizontal (is there a trend developing with BMW's parking horizontal?) any way the BMW also knocked down Glenn's new Moto Guzzi which in turn knocked down a new BMW, after Brian exchanged his contact details Dean directed us to the Zaidees Rainbow Foundation display in the Expo area.
Chris & Phil ready to head out on the Friday. Zaidees Triumph Rocket at the Expo
After due process we were are allocated with identification and both cloth and enamel badges to sell around the race track, we operated in pairs and found that families in particular were interested in the Zaidees Rainbow Foundation with a good number of them having knowledge of the rainbow boot laces that have been a signature product for raising funds.
Friday do not finish very nicely with the weather turning very cold and then the rain started, this slowed up the sale of items around the race track later in the day.
Phil, Glenn and Debbie stayed on the Island at the Cowes Masonic Centre which was once again kindly provided for those VMMA members who were staying on the Island for the 3 days, thank you to Dave Hall, Rick and Doc for assisting with the arrangements at the Masonic Centre.
Very wet Friday afternoon for the practice laps for the Moto GP.
Chris and Mal rode back to Melbourne together, or should I say we departed Phillip Island for Melbourne together but Mal's Triumph decided not to play and packed it in between Koo-wee-rup and Tooradin, it was cold, very wet and dark but assistance was not far away with Brian Sanders providing the car with a tow bar and Red providing the trailer, Brian and Red were good enough to take the Triumph and Mal back to Frankston whilst Chris rode off into the rain home ward bound.
Saturday was a big day for the VMMA with members at both the Moto GP raising funds whilst others involved in the VMMA Installation team at The Brighton Lodge to install the Master Elect.
On the Saturday we were given additional badges to sell at the race track these being the Barry Sheen ride badges, these proved to be very sort after by the motorcyclist at the track.
L to R: Dean, Dave, Viv & Sharyn Chris has found a friend!!!!!!
On Sunday additional VMMA members rode down once again from Tooradin to join the other members already down at the track, those members involved in the raising of the $26,000 over the 4 days were Dean, Eric, Chris, Sharyn, Glenn, Deb, Mal, Brian, Phil, Dave, Viv and The Baron.
Sunday turned out to be a real beauty with a 50,000 crowd of motorcyclists to watch the days racing events and potential purchases of badges to aid the fundraising. This was definitely the most profitable day in relation to raising funds and awareness of organ and tissue donations.
Reported by CW
