Official Launch

Just a reminder .....





The Official Launch of the 2009 Big Wish Bike Ride will be held on Friday 25th July, 2008 in the Champs Function Room at the Woodville West Torrens Football Club, from 7pm to 10pm. Finger food and entertainment included in the ticket price of $20 per person. Drinks available to purchase from the Bar. Auctions, raffles and much fundraising on the night so please bring extra cash with you. Purchase tickets from Ashley or Richard if you know them, or me - Margaret - on 0412 104 751 or email margaret@jgg.com.au

One day to go .....

Only one more day until our Launch ..... everything is in place and now we just need to get underway.

Met with Marcia at the Eagles venue yesterday - very helpful in all areas.

As we have a number of family supporters attending, we have now included a price for children under 12 years who are coming along with their parents. $10 will get the kids a "special" table where they will have their own food platters and soft drinks provided. Thank you very much to the Eagles for accommodating us in this way.

I would like to just add a special thank you to supporters Crumpler and Fruit Only for also donating goods for the Launch.

Have you looked at the range of Crumpler bags? Amazing ... I will be visiting their Adelaide store next week looking for a computer bag for my lap top. I want something just a bit more feminine than what my husband thinks I should have!

Fruit Only are associated with Roses Only .... but if you want something a bit more nutritious than flowers (for a guy maybe), then Fruit Only have the gift for you. Check them out - they deliver Australia wide!

We are also looking at other events to raise funds before we leave on the bike ride. So far we have planned a quiz night in May 2009, a Gala Dinner on 20th March 2009 and a Fashion Parade - date to be confirmed. The Cyclethon we are hoping to have in late November this year but are still awaiting a reply from the SuperDrome. Hopefully we will also be able to book a few BBQ nights at the Lion over the summer months - I better get organised before they are all booked out!

We will also have some "trial" rides throughout South Australia visiting various Make A Wish Branches. Once again those dates are still being organised.

So much to do and only 14 months to do it in!!!! I am not starting to panic .. I am just getting my head around it all.

Did I tell you we have our own drink bottles now too? We are planning to give them to people who donate at least $10 to the Big Wish Bike Ride. Thanks to Ashleys brother for arranging them for us.

Must go - need to collect our special Launch polo tops from Ray at Get Marketing - another of our wonderful supporters!

Catch you soon.

Launch auction

The Launch is getting closer ... only a few days to go now. Thank you to Mr JABA for his efforts with the Powerpoint presentation - beautiful piece of work!

Another of our auction items on the night is a painting by emerging artist Stefan Maguran. It is valued at $1300 and a similar piece of his artwork sold for more than that recently. Titled "Wind in the Mountains", the painting measures 90 x 90 cm and is mixed media on canvas.

Remember, if you cannot attend on the night and want to bid on any of the items, just send me an email with your maximum bid and we will organise someone to bid on your behalf.

Just going through our route yesterday and planning our accomodation stops - we are in for quite a ride! Hopefully there will be some whales on view when we hit the Nullarbor - from all accounts they put on quite a spectacular display. I cannot believe the guys are riding almost 4000 kms in 23 days! Glad I will be in the car .... catch you soon. Cheers.

Launch and Auction News

Just home from Melbourne so thought I should let you know some of the auction items we will have at our Launch.

For the Aussie Rules football fans we have 2 signed and framed guernseys. We have a Port Adelaide Power guernsey signed by the 2008 team and an AFL Heritage jumper (150 games) signed by the Dream Team Captain, popular Adelaide Crow player Andrew McLeod, as well as the Dream Team Coach, Port Power coach Mark Williams. Needless to say the AFL Heritage guernsey is priceless - very hard to come by at the moment - and the Port Power guernsey will be subject to some spirited bidding on the night as well! (just ask Frank...)

We also have some other goodies lined up which I will divulge during the coming week. Suggest you buy your tickets early this week if you have not already got them so you can bid at the auction!

My trip to Melbourne was a bit sad - rather embarrassing in fact! We went over to watch our #3 son play in the SAAFL U23 team against the VFA U23 side. Expectations were very high as we thrashed the Vics last year. Unfortunately, after losing to SA twice in recent times, the Vics had way more to lose than us and pride had them winning the game by double our score. All that way for a loss! Being a supportive parent is very hard (and expensive) sometimes! To be fair though - the Vics did have some very good players in the side and had an especially good backline. Next year perhaps .......

If you do happen to read our site - leaving a comment would be fantastic. Any words of support for the guys or our fundraising will be passed on, hopefully with answers to any questions you ask.

Hope to meet many of you at the Launch on Friday night. Cheers ......

Moving along .....

Well - we had a good meeting last night and I think we are pretty much organised for our Launch.

Now all we have to do is sell those tickets - so, we need final numbers by Tuesday night - if you want to come along, please send me an email or speak with either Ashley or Richard. You can always donate some cash if you cannot make it BUT we would prefer your company on the night!

For those of you who do not know Ashley very well, he is a big ideas man. His latest idea is to hold a "cyclethon" where he and Richard will ride their bikes for 24 hours straight. Have I mentioned this before? Well, he has had the idea and is really keen to get it happening but guess who gets to actually make it happen? That's right - good old Margaret! Thanks Ashley .... he even gave me a couple of months to do it in - wants to do the cyclethon at the end of November! Men!

So today I looked at some venue options. The Victoria Park racetrack seemed like a good place to start - central location, able to accommodate vehicles, entertainment and food. A very good price for a minor event under 5000 people too - FREE! On reading the Terms and Conditions though I discovered we had to have our own Public Risk Insurance - so far out of our budget we cannot even consider the place.

So, next venue to look at is the Velodrome - sorry - Adelaide Super-Drome. Have sent them an email and am hoping for a positive reply very quickly. It would actually be ideal if it is available and a realistic cost as the weather would not be detrimental to any riders. We thought we might invite some local cycling clubs to participate as well. They could choose how long they wanted to ride - 2 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours etc - and donate funds to the BWBR. Of course Ashley and Richard would be looking for sponsors to encourage them to complete the solid 24 hour ride!

So, please cross your fingers and toes that we get a positive response for this one and then be prepared for the calls for HELP!

The guys had their photo taken last night for the local Messenger Press - will let you know when that article comes out.

We have also bought back our original domain name and have had it redirected to this site. So if you want to give out our web address to anyone and are getting tired fingers with writing such a long address - you can just cut it down to www.bigwishbikeride.com

Time for this little (in my eyes) chicky babe to get dinner sorted for the hungry male bodies in the house.

Cheers ......

Back on line at last!

Hi everyone

My apologies for not updating the site for such a long time. I have travelled to New Zealand, assisted my mum through a knee replacement and rehab, enjoyed the Make A Wish Adelaide Ball, and am now in Canada!

We have finally set our Official Launch plans in motion ... it will be held on Friday 25th July 2008 in the Champs Function Room at the Eagles (Woodville West Torrens) Football Club, Oval Avenue, Woodville, SA. Time is 7pm - 10pm. Cost is $20 per person which includes finger food and live entertainment. The Band is Fear of Flying. Drinks are available to purchase at the Bar. Please remember to bring along some extra cash on the night for the raffles/auctions etc! Dress is Cocktail style!

Tickets are available from both Richard and Ashley, and for those who don't know either of the guys, just send an email to margaret@jgg.com.au or call my mobile 0412 104 751 to arrange your ticket purchases.

If you want to learn more about the ride, would like to donate cash or goods, or would like to become a sponsor - just let me know!

We will be changing our masthead once I return to Australia - just have to organise some free time with JABA and Mrs JABA. I am expecting great things from both of them in the creativity department!

It is so beautiful here in Waterloo, Canada at the moment - early summer and everything is incredibly green.

Catch you again very soon - much sooner than previously now that the Ball is over.

Cheers

Margaret