After a great deal of organising, our Pollie Pedal Lunch went off without a hitch and seemed to be enjoyed by all those who attended.
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| Volunteers John and Colin at work |
Each year, Wandering Warriors hosts significant events dedicated to raising funds and fostering unity among veterans. These gatherings are crucial for veterans and their families.
We agreed, as included in our aims is to give back to our community, a community that is habitually and invariably generous in supporting our ongoing fundraising efforts.
We thought our association with Pollie Pedal riders and supporters would be interesting and fun, and it was.
Even our BBQ volunteers had smiles on their faces as they rolled corn cobs and sausages and flipped lovely scotch fillet steaks from Barossa Smokehouse Butchers at Angaston.
We'd gotten off to a shaky start after several rostered volunteers reported ill with influenza and we had to quickly arrange for some others to assist. Ultimately, we were able to pull in a couple of replacements and eventually we had more people than we needed.
As the riders and their teams rolled in, we caught a glimpse of a few familiar faces: Ex-Prime Minister Tony Abbot (Patron), current Federal MPs Angus Taylor, who is Shadow Minister for Defence and Chair of Pollie Ride, and Andrew Wallace, Member for Fisher in Queensland, who weren't there in their official capacities, simply doing their bit for the Wandering Warriors and charity. Mr Quenton Masson, DSM Executive Director and CEO of Wandering Warriors was also in attendance and later, he and Angus Taylor addressed the crowd (see below).
The following photographs provide an overview of what our Hut looked like on the day:
Both the riders, who came from a variety of places and occupations, and our sub-branch volunteers had ample opportunity to socialise. The Hut was abuzz with chatting as we exchanged details of our various military service, the immigrant history of our region, the vineyards, previous rides, and the experience of riding up Mengler Hill. Several riders had done it before.
Saturday was their easiest ride they said, and tomorrow after their breakfast and a 7 am start, they would ride closer to Adelaide to end their 831km ride. The whole group would then disperse as participants returned to their home states, towns, families and jobs.
In another 12 months, it will all happen again at a different time and place and perhaps a combination of new and old faces will be involved.
We are most appreciative of being able to host the Pollie Riders at our humble Hut and will remember it as one of the key events of the year.
