In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand In Gear - Issue 3 | Page 48
A flying start
The weather couldn’t have been
better – or the community reception
warmer – for the inaugural
Whitehorse Big Easy event, held in
Waimate on April 9.
Around 450 competitors, aged from
two to 80, plus supporters and a
crew of volunteers, converged on the
Waimate A & P Showgrounds for the
start of the multi-event race.
Drawing a field from Hanmer Springs
to Invercargll, and even an overseas
competitor, event day kicked off with
the 25km and 13km mountain bikers.
With a slight course change (thanks
to Cyclone Debbie), the bikers were
set with a challenging ride that left
them muddy, but happy.
The 18km and 12km walkers and
runners followed, but, with 100
competitors, the biggest event was
the 5km walk and run. The final
event was the 1.5km kids’ run or bike.
Inaugural Whitehorse Big Easy winners
Brett Farmer and Tim Harrison with Ryan
Luckman, of the Rotary Club of Waimate.
The ‘Whitehorse Challenge’ was
a ‘race within a race’, with each
member of the two-person teams
tackling either the 25km bike or
18km run. Twenty teams entered,
each having to raise $500 for
nominated charities to compete,
ultimately reaching nearly $15,000 in
total.
But how does one small-town Rotary
club take the kernel of an idea for a
fundraiser in an event market that’s
considered pretty much saturated
already, get the whole community
along for the ride, and stage its first
event to rave reviews … all within
just 12 short months?
Here, Rotary Club of Waimate
Community Services director Ryan
Luckman explains the journey,
and passes on the tips, lessons and
insight gathered along the way for
other clubs to ponder.