Riding On Report Winter 2023

To all those who were lucky enough to make it, wasn’t it great to finally get to Lismore? I consider myself extra lucky as I got to spend a week travelling to Lismore with five Branch mates, enjoying the rally week and then taking two weeks travelling home via coastal and inland Queensland. By the time we got back to Perth I had travelled 13,299km, so give a thought to little dog TedE on his first ‘long’ ride with ears flapping all the way.

After the grand parade I was proud to announce that the Canberra Branch had taken out the Jo Dearnley Award with the Central Desert Branch receiving the Good Joint Award.

The UCARF raffle ticket sales went well and along with the major prize donated by TAC, we had several smaller prizes and thank BMW Ballina for motorcycle accessories, Marcel Smith for the lovely vests and the Gear Shop for tee shirts. A big thanks to Peter Baulch and Mike Abberfield for organising it at short notice. National Treasurer, John Tout, has advised me that the raffle raised $3951 for UCARF. With the container return, storm trooper photos and a few other things a total of over $4700 was raised over the rally week. This is also added to by the United Fuel Card proceeds of $3899 and of course all the wonderfully Branch and individual donations over the past year.

In the last report I noted an unknown donation of $500. This was in fact from the Central Desert mob. Donations from Branches since the Summer Riding On edition are:

Sydney Thursday Riders $620, Lower Murray $500, Northern Beaches $100, Ballarat Toy Run $436.64, Central Desert $500, Yarra Ranges $1500, Orange $1000, Torrens Valley $300, North West Coast $200, Brisbane West $500, Redlands $1000, Blue Mountains $25, St. George $500, Sale and Districts $500 and TedE Containers $75. It is good to see Tweed Border Branch join in Containers for UCARF.

With all your donations and the Lismore Rally funds the UCARF bank account is very healthy and fully covers our research grant to Professor Meilang Xue PhD, Director, Sutton Arthritis Research Laboratory, Kolling Institute. I did make contact with Professor Meilang Xue and she asked me to say hello to everyone and thank you all for your generous contribution to their arthritis research. She was heading to Hobart for an Australian Rheumatology Association Annual Scientific Meeting. At this meeting she presented two papers which are supported by the Ulysses Club Arthritis Research Fund. We can feel proud as her presentation charts clearly show the Old Man Logo in acknowledgement.

Don’t forget you can purchase your UCARF Patch and Badge from the Ulysses Gear Shop and drop me a line if you would like more information on “TedE’s Containers for UCARF”

Ken and TedE
UCARF Coordinator,
#51189 DM #67