RIDING FOR WISHES
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RFW Club Stargazing for Starlight Wishes Granted
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Home News Sponsors Route Merchandise Videos and Pics Riders Donations RFW Club Stargazing for Starlight Wishes Granted
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RIDERS
Riding for Wishes started out as 2 blokes deciding they wanted to ride around oz. We have to say that after watching Ewan and Charlie in The Long Way Round, this inspired us to new heights. Taking into consideration we are not movie stars or young fit chaps, we decided to take The Easy Way Round and not hit the deserts or baron lands of Australia. Then we thought what a great way for raising money for a charity that we had both worked with for a few years. Starlight Children's Foundation Australia. From there it ballooned into a 40,000 kilometre trip in 100 days. Visiting hundreds of tourist attractions as well as some out of the way places in Australia plus making a documentary of the whole thing. Both of the riders have grown up children and are very committed to Starlight and the needs of seriously sick children and their families in Australia. We hope to raise enough money to grant 50 of these children with wishes that they will remember for ever. It costs around $5000 per wish of course some will cost more and others will be less. That means we will have to raise in excess of $250,000 and with the help of the biking community in Australia we feel that we can do this figure and hopefully more. As we have mentioned in the opening page of this web site, we will be making a documentary of the trip, so we would like to meet up with motorcycle clubs across Australia and get them to chose one of their favorite rides. We would like to go on the ride with them and with their help raise even more money for the Starlight Children's Foundation. So all you clubs out there get your thinking hats on lets show the rest of Australia what us bikers can do......
Regards Keith and Brian
PS Make sure you check out Ewan and Charley's latest adventure The Long Way Down
WE HOPE TO RAISE MONEY FOR STARLIGHT VIA CORPORATE AND INDIVIDUAL SPONSORSHIP, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR A RIDER PLEASE CONTACT US AT ridingforwishes@iinet.net.au . THE MORE WE RAISE THE MORE WISHES CAN BE GRANTED. We still have places for riders that would like to go on this trip, if you are interested please drop me a line. ridingforwishes@iinet.net.au THE RIDERS Brian Sture
I owned my own production engineering company for twenty nine years manufacturing mechanical parts for the electronics industry. I retired from the industry in 2001 and concentrated on one of my passions - astronomy. I now run a seven week course entitled Astronomy for Beginners. This has given me the opportunity to meet with like minded people who wish to hone their skills in this hobby. Through astronomy I have been associated with various ventures to raise money for the Starlight Foundation. This has been successful and has led me to believe that with good sponsorship I could achieve a lot more. My second passion is riding motorcycles which I have done over the past 55 years. It was this passion that helped make my decision to join Keith in Riding for Wishes. This is not an easy thing to do. Around the world in Australia will be a challenging ride and one that should generate a lot of interest which I am glad to say it has done so already. I recently tested myself with an 8,000km ride from Perth to Newcastle to see my partner’s daughter. I wanted to check out my stamina rating to see how difficult it would be to ride this distance in a short time. During the ride I encountered rain, wind, a dust storm and fog, didn’t get any snow. Five and a half days to Newcastle, four days to look around then four days back to Perth, mission accomplished. The riding gear I had chosen was perfect for the ride and I arrived back none the worse for wear. I feel confident in being part of this duo riding for the Starlight Foundation. Riding for Wishes is a way of expressing my sincerity to these unfortunate kids by raising money to brighten their lives and relieving some of their family’s stresses.
Keith Williams
I have been riding motorcycles for many years riding my first motorcycle at the grand age of 12, I worked for Yamaha in the UK in the late 70's where I managed to ride many varieties of motorcycles, everything from the FS1E sports moped up to the Martini Hailwood XS1100. I moved to Perth in 94 and I now run an Astronomy shop. I have been involved with raising funds for Starlight over the years here in Australia and as a father of 2 grown up kids I feel very lucky that myself and my wife, Lyndsey, went through the childhood years with no real problems. I was lucky enough in the early 80's, while working as a presenter on Radio Jackie in London, to get involved with Radio Lollipop in the UK and that gave me a great understanding of what an organisation like Starlight can do for seriously ill kids and their families. I now find myself in a position where I can hopefully use my spare time to raise money and awareness for the Starlight Children's Foundation and hopefully make some families lives a little more enjoyable. Brian and myself starting talking about doing a trip around Australia quite a while ago. Lyndsey and my two kids, Abi and Luke, bought me for my birthday the book, The Long Way Round, by Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGregor. The book reminded me of my days back in the UK and some of the places I used to ride too, it wasn't long before I was on the hunt for a motorcycle. Then we got a copy of the DVD, that was it, we were sold on the idea, A trip around Australia, but not just round the edge let's do the whole place, a quick calculation and we were up to 40,000 killometres, Brian said," that's the distance around the Earth at the Equator". Let's do it, I said, so here we are, two old farts heading off on what I have to say will be the Ride of a lifetime. |
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ridingforwishes@iinet.net.au with questions or comments about this web site.
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