Saddled up for kids
SUPPORTING the community is what Sandy Kersh and her husband Quentin like to do.
So much so they do it out of their own pocket, using their rodeo and concreting business to help people in the region.
But Sandy says there are many people in Townsville happy to do the same thing.
“I love the people here, there’s always someone out there willing to lend a hand when you need any help,” she said. “I love our winters, just not the summers.”
Sandy moved to Townsville from Brisbane as a child and has been here ever since.
Her husband Quentin grew up on a cattle property in Richmond, Western Queensland.
Together they built the North Queensland Elite Rodeo arena, at Rangewood, from scratch three and a half years ago.
“It was my husband’s dream to create a great event but more so to help kids out with junior development.
“I share his passion and the entire family has come on board to sponsor kids wanting to learn the sport. It’s just fantastic to see the kids out there in the arena.”
Sandy and her husband pay for boys to learn how to ride, and supply them with clothing to wear as well as fuel money for transport.
Sandy said she wanted to teach her children to help other people if they had the capacity to do so.
Aside from helping individual people, money raised from a raffle held by the family will be donated to the Townsville Hospital Foundation.
“We try to spread the money around but we also have an international rider who visits the children’s ward … we had an American comedy clown brighten up their day and the kids loved getting presents from him,” Sandy said.
She said the annual rodeo provided them with an opportunity to support Townsville charities.
“With running such a huge event we rely on volunteers with the different jobs … we try to draw on as many community groups as we can to volunteer for us, then we give them quite a decent donation.,” Sandy said.
“There are so many community groups that need help.”
The annual rodeo will take place this Saturday.
To find out more, go to NQ Elite Rodeo on Facebook.