Riding On Report Summer 2018

Recent activities include the submission of three sponsorship proposals from two institutions for consideration of future funding.

I am most pleased to announce that the national committee has approved a special additional sponsorship funding proposal of $50,000.00 for 2018. The recipient is RA researcher Dr.Nadia Deen of Monash University. This special sponsorship was possible due to a bequest from a member who left in excess of $64,000 (after a settlement) for UCARF in his will. We wish to honour and dedicate the sponsorship to the late Mr Erwin Schmidt.

Past National President and life member, Rick Bedford, has written six science fiction books known as the Kuscan Heritage series. Rick has kindly offered to donate 75% from sales royalties to UCARF. Details and the sales page are available by a search at amazon.com.au or a hard copy can be ordered from Angus and Robertson.

Recently, I created a UCARF newsletter designed to bolster moderate national biennial raffle ticket sales. There was an appeal in the newsletter to the 68 branches who had not requested tickets at that time. We had an immediate response from Hills Branch in Sydney, who wanted 20 books to help promote the sales. Ipswich Branch also responded quickly with a request for two books and there have been eight individual ticket sales. How good is that?  Approximately 4,000 tickets have been sold or distributed and approximately $4,200.00 is held in the account at the time of writing. Thanks to president Jen Woods for a quick response distributing a colourful newsletter. Also, thanks to past national treasurer Mike Abberfield who is doing a lot of background support.

I have composed and submitted a full page UCARF report for the Mornington Peninsular Rally 2019 booklet. I am yet to supply a high-resolution photograph as requested. Does anyone know a skilled photograph portrait enhancer as I feel I need it? Also, but not directly UCARF-related, I wish to provide a little feedback from once again attending the recent Melbourne Branch Odyssey. The event was very good, as usual, at the fabulous location of Nagambie, Victoria. John Cook deserves many accolades for organisation, and he was very busy selling UCARF raffle tickets on the Friday evening.

The VBC (Victorian Breakfast Club) turned up on Saturday at the local bakery. The VBC attendance was impressive and is an obvious success story. Sunday (21/10/2018) I attended the “Two Wheels to Wellington” event, which is conducted under the Motorcycle Awareness Month – NSW Motorcycle Council. Ulysses members, Peter Ogden, Phil Melhuish and John Jannus do the bulk of the work with some extra assistance. You should be familiar with these names as they have been huge supportersof UCARF. They won the most recent Jo Dearnley Memorial Award 2017 and have donated in excess of $20,000 over the last few years. The event was very successful, with good numbers of attendees and beautiful weather. At the end of the event, I was presented with a $3,000.00 cheque for UCARF, being sourced from various fund-raising activities. Once again, how good is that?

The following list of donations that have been received from various branches and groups since the last published recognition in the spring edition of Riding On. This generosity and support of our great club cause is something we can all be very proud of. In no particular order –

Lions Club Wodonga $2,000.00, Dubbo and Western Plains Branch – Wellington members $3,000.00, Tamar Tourers Branch $500.00, Bunbury Branch $3,000.00,Shearwaters Branch $1,500.00, Lithgow and Districts Branch $500.00, SE Queensland Presidents Group $327.50, Mildura Branch $1,000.00, MIA Branch $250.00, 2019 National Rally team $72.00, Broken Hill Branch $1,000.00. A delighted national president, Jen Woods, accepted the UCARF donation from Broken Hill branch whilst attending a recent social meeting.

Very nice to receive some support from the Ulysses RV Group. Gordon Crosswell #45081 and Blip Hendriks, Queensland RV Group Coordinators, have deposited $63.00 into the UCARF account. The money was raised from two minor activities at the recent RV Group AGM at Boonah, which saw attendance by 80 RVs and 150 members.

Most of us in our age category would well remember the great voice of English singer Cilla Black. How many would know that, before her death in 2015, she had suffered much pain for many years from rheumatoid arthritis? Cilla was in fact in considerable agony towards the end of her life from RA.

Kim Kennerson
UCARF Coordinator,

#6929 L.M. 14.