The 20th anniversary of the Illawarra Convoy was an undeniable success, with over 700 trucks taking part and the transport community digging deep to help sick children.
Rigs made their way from Illawarra Coal’s West Cliff Colliery at Appin through the streets of the Illawarra, winding up at Shellharbour Airport for a jam-packed day of family fun.
An incredible $1.6m was raised for the Illawarra Community Foundation through the auctions for the convoy’s Lead Truck and Lead Bike last week – before a single engine even revved.
This brought the total amount raised by the event over the past 20 years to $26,880,404, with the final numbers for this year still being tallied.
For the first time, the team from Tiny Tins and Wollongong Crane Trucks were given the honour of leading the convoy after donating a remarkable $300,020 to the cause.
Tiny Tins, a family business who deliver skip bins throughout the Illawarra, has organised a series of fundraising events over the past year, including two major boxing events called Battle of the Businesses and a Halloween disco for kids.
Tiny Tins co-owner Karlie Zec told Big Rigs that the team are over the moon to have been able to donate such a large amount.
“We’re absolutely amazed,” she said. “It’s been a really tough year for fundraising, and we’ve worked really hard over the last 12 months to get to that figure.
“We were actually sitting at around $200,000 on the morning of the lead truck bidding, and we raised $100,000 in a couple of hours thanks to the help of the local community.”
Zec described the atmosphere on the day as “beautiful and overwhelmingly emotional.”
She continued: “We’ve been doing the convoy for the past few years and I think it was the biggest crowd that we’ve seen yet.
“We were a bit worried it was going to rain but it was really sunny.
“It was just great to see so many people from the local community, the trucking community and the motorbike community coming together.”
Zec said Tiny Tins wanted to support the Illawarra Community Foundation, which helps families battling life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses, for a number of reasons.
“We’ve got young kids ourselves and lucky to have happy, healthy children but not everyone is in the same position as us and needs a little bit of extra support,” she said.
“We’ve always loved to give back to the community now that we are in a position to do that, financially.”
Tiny Tins also has a personal connection to the cause as the six-year-old son of a family friend has a condition called Hirschsprung’s disease.
“Little Ase has got a lot of bowel problems, he’s been in and out of hospital since he was born,” said Zec.
“He’s fitted with a bag because he can’t go to the bathroom himself, and he has a TPN, a drip that’s connected to his central line overnight that gives him everything he needs to survive.
“He’s had a real tough life but he’s the happiest, most energetic little boy you’ll ever meet.”
Ase was the star of the show on Sunday, leading the convoy out of the West Cliff Colliery in a miniature truck.
“He was leading until we actually got on the road, of course!”
“He had the best day ever.”
Hot on Ase’s heels, the lead full-size truck was an Isuzu Npr 200 driven by Orlane Mortimer from Wollongong Crane Trucks.
“Orlane and I are best friends and we’ve been a team for the convoy from the start,” said Zec.
“We started fundraising together four years ago. The first year we only raised $8000, the second year was $35,000 and then last year was $261,000 so we just keep going upwards and upwards!
“The Illawarra Convoy will always be part of our work family and our actual family – we can’t wait to see what we can come up with next.”