Have you ever seen 720 motorbikes and 700 trucks try to park in one location, and then all head off down the highway together to raise over 1/2 a million dollars for charity? If not you need to! It really is an amazing sight and a marvellous one to behold. It's also a memory that a group of players from Northern Districts Cricket Club will not forget in a hurry!
It was Sunday November 20th, 2011 and it was familiar territory for so many of The Butchers fraternity. It was 4:30am, the horizon was showing glimpses of the sunrise and all the boys were out on the pavement, however something was different, this time the guys were not walking out of a nightclub, they were boarding the Thirroul Bowling Leagues & Recreation Club courtesy bus to head to WestCliff Colliery and Cataract Dam for the start of the i98FM Camp Quality Convoy.
Northern Districts Cricket Club have worked hard to become a family orientated club in recent years, and having had a few players in the club suffer the devastating effects of cancer on their families, the club had been looking to develop/run an event to raise money for a charity, however this year, NDCC welcomed Dialtone Traffic Control & Training on board as a Gold Sponsor and quickly discovered that ‘Dialtone' is also a major supporter of the i98FM Camp Quality Convoy. "Supporting the Convoy fits so many of The Butchers values and ideals, It just makes so much sense to support this event" said Club President Neil Ryan.
Vice-President Matt Benstead said "In recent years, the club has unfortunately had a former players wife & a promising young players mother pass away from cancer while the daughter of another player also went through cancer treatment and is thankfully out the other side. The i98FM Camp Quality Convoy gives the players a chance to help out a great community event and in a small and remote way, help those people who have been or will be affected by cancer. NDCC and our players also want to ensure that we can provide as much help to our gold sponsor Dialtone Traffic Control & Training in whatever manner available, so it was great to see our guys up there at Westcliff on Sunday to support the convoy in the BBQ/Amenities area's and point trucks and motorbikes into turning and parking bays".
Marty Haynes from i98FM welcomed the crew just after 5am and The Butchers quickly got to work in preparation for the arrival of trucks and motorbikes at 6am. The next 2hrs flew by and at around 8:15am, the Convoy got underway. The sound of the 700 motorbikes all firing up and honking their horns was great, while the sight of the various apparel and bike decorations gave some cheery entertainment as they rolled off down the highway, however soon came one of the most gratifying sights this writer has ever seen as the Lead Trucks got the convoy really underway!
Illawarra Truck Repairs & Spares had the leading truck honours after their astonishing bid on Friday of $66,000 for the right to lead the Convoy off. They were closely followed by Duren Transport, Ross Transport, and then McMahon's Transport - and their "People's Truck" which looked spectacular!
All the chrome, flags, streamers, banners and air horns made for a tear jerking start to the convoy, as they set off for Croome Rd Sporting Complex taking around 2hrs to empty out of the WestCliff Colliery and Cataract Dam area.
The motorbikes and trucks wound their way along Bulli Tops, down the F6, past Wollongong University, past the Port Kembla Steelworks, through Primbee, Warilla and Shellharbour and then into a sea of 10,000 people at Croome Road Sporting Complex in Albion Park, with the last truck arriving at approximately 1pm, which was just in time for the performances of Wes Carr and Diesel.
In 2010 The Convoy event raised $540,000 and in 2011 convoy has set another record by raising over $662,000 dollars. To raise over $1.1million dollars in 2yrs for Camp Quality is fantastic and everyone involved from set-up to pack-up should be extremely proud of themselves.
A great time was had by all The Butchers involved in 2011, and NDCC are looking forward to assisting once again in the 2012 Convoy.
All Butcher photo's of the day can be found here and WIN TV will also be screening a special presentation at 5:30pm on Sunday Nov 27th.
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