Charity ride overcomes uncertainty
The $157,000 raised in this year’s Central South Island Charity Bike Ride was divvied up between eight South Canterbury charities.
Ride chairman Max Munro said it was the third-highest amount the ride had paid out in its 17-year history.
‘‘A fantastic amount of money raised under extreme circumstances,’’ Munro said.
Hospice, the ride’s cornerstone recipient, received $54,950 while $25,550 went to Family Works and the YMCA, $15,7000 to the Graeme Dingle Foundation and Heart Kids, and $7850 to Child Restraints, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and Riding for the Disabled.
The charities were presented with the cheques at a ceremony at the Hospice on the corner of Orbell St and Broadway Ave, Timaru.
‘‘We all are extremely thankful for all the hard work the charities, along with all support staff, put in to make this one of the most successful events we have had,’’ Munro said. ‘‘When we started planning this year’s ride 12 months ago, we certainly were heading into the unknown.
‘‘I don’t believe there was any stage that we didn’t believe it would go ahead. Although, over the week prior to the ride, it did have everyone on tenterhooks.’’
The ride came close to getting canned this year when new Covid19 community cases forced Auckland into alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand into level 2 days before the ride was set to start in February.
The snap lockdown lifted the morning of the ride.
The 125 cyclists who signed up for the ride pedalled out of Timaru as planned on February 18.
They rode 385 kilometres to Tekapo, Kurow, and back to Timaru over three days.
Munro said this year’s success, despite the economic impact of the global pandemic, showed ‘‘what a motivated region we live in’’.
The event had benefited 48 charities and raised more than $2 million since it began.
‘‘When we started planning this year’s ride 12 months ago, we certainly were heading into the unknown.’’
Max Munro Central South Island Charity Bike Ride chairman