It has been Australia’s only fundraising convoy for sick kids since the pandemic struck, and at the end of yesterday’s Townsville event organiser Ren Pedersen was delighted to hold up a large cheque for $62,020.
There was 205 trucks and more than 100 motorbikes in the Convoy for a Cure, which went ahead after two previous applications to hold it earlier in the year were knocked back because of Covid-19.
It started from a marshalling area at Webb Drive in Bohle and continued along Ingham Road, Duckworth Street, Woolcock Streets, Charters Towers Road and Riverway Drive to the Ross River Dam, a total of more than 30km.
The convoy was more than 8km long and thousands of men, women and children watched from footpaths, front yards and verandahs.
In return the trucks blasted their horns to acknowledge that. In normal years at the park near the dam the trucks parked and a family fun day was held.
However, this is not a normal time because of social distancing and trucks turned around there and headed back along Ross River Road.
Petersen was assisted again by Todd Martin who travelled in one of the trucks and did live crosses to Radio Station Power FM.
During the live crosses several listeners phoned and made donations.
Back in May 2009, Pedersen sadly lost his daughter Amy to brain cancer and he set up an independent Australian arm of a charity called The Cure Starts Now, which aims to not only fight cancer, but eliminate it.
The Cure Starts Now is the first cancer charity dedicated to a ‘holistic cure’.
He has become a prominent, international advocate for children’s cancer research and has been nominated for Australian of the Year multiple times for his efforts.
“There was more than $10 million worth of trucks participating in the convoy and we are delighted with the amount raised. People in the road transport industry are very generous,” Pedersen said.
The winners of the large fleet section was ABC Towing which raised $6214.17 followed by Nortrans with $5684.28.
Small fleet winners was Townsville Mini Loads which raised $4508.12, followed by Princess Bulk Haulage with $3317.69.
- For more pictures from the event, watch out for the October 16 print edition of Big Rigs at your usual outlet.