Ride to the Red Centre Wrap Up
Hello all Black Dog Riders and supporters!
The 2012 Black Dog Ride to the Red Centre was an incredible event, receiving unprecedented media coverage, heartwarming support throughout every community in which we traveled, and of course a massive presence by riders around the nation. Over 500 riders took part, and over 200 rode all the way the Red Centre. To date more than $234,000 has been raised for the Black Dog Institute (donate here), and the awareness raised of depression and suicide prevention is both incalculable and invaluable.
There will be an official Rider Update with thank yous and appreciative epithets from Steve Andrews when he arrives back home and has time to gather his thoughts, but in the mean time grab a cuppa and catch up with some post Ride maintenance -
Black Dog Riders on the road to Alice Springs
Photos and Blogs
Every blog and every photo on the web of the Ride to the Red Centre helps the Black Dog Ride mission to raise awareness of depression and suicide prevention.
There are a number of riders out there who blog about their adventures on the Ride to the Red Centre. Black Dog Ride will be setting up a blog link exchange on this website and would love to share the Ride to the Red Centre blogs with the wider BDR community. If you have a blog about the 2012 Ride to the Red Centre, please contact me with the link to your blog so I can include yours on this site.
Black Dog Ride also has Flickr and Photobucket accounts (currently waiting to be filled) and we'd love to see your photos of the Ride included in these galleries. Black Dog Ride receives many calls throughout the year for promotional photos of our rides and it's a great opportunity to showcase your photos. If you have a Flickr account, please use the #BlackDogRide2012 and #BlackDogRide hashtags so we can find your photos. If you have a Photobucket account with Ride pics in it, swing us an email and let us know your username so we can find the pics.
It would be appreciated if you could send me direct links to blogs/images only, however if you haven't uploaded photos anywhere, emailing me your Red Centre photos is fine. Every image will be attributed to the original photographer. If you don't want your photos included in the Black Dog Ride galleries, please let us know asap.
Proud Black Dog Rider, photo courtesy Philip Down
Lost Property
Black Dog Ride has a number of items collected over the course of the ride. If you're missing something, please email me to let me know and we'll see if we have it in our collection. No guarantees we'll have it, but if we do we'll get it out to you.
Raffle and Auction Items
The Auction on the final function of the Ride to the Red Centre raised a fantastic $4,600 for the Black Dog Institute. A HUGE thankyou to all donors, especially Tommy Crow whose generous donation of his original painting netted $1700! Although Brookester swears he'll use a cattle auctioneer (and cattle prods) for next year's auction, we're thrilled with the generosity and spirit of our Black Dog Riders.
If you purchased an item in the auction, please contact me as soon as possible so we can arrange payment and delivery of items.
Raffle recipients also need to contact me to arrange delivery of items. There were a number of Day Riders/Night Riders who won items and weren't present at Red Centre Dreaming to receive their prizes. I will be spending the next week deciphering my scrawls of the evening so I can contact the prize winners. Please be patient.
Tommy Crow generously donates his original painting to the Black Dog Ride auction
Next Ride
Yes, incredibly, we've been already been inundated with requests for information regarding the next Black Dog Ride! Black Dog Riders are inexhaustable! If you want to be notified of all Black Dog Ride headlines, news and rides please sign up for the Black Dog Ride e-newsletter here
Steve Andrews....enjoying the Ride.
Media
Spotted any media about the Black Dog Ride to the Red Centre? Please email me and let me know about it so it can be uploaded to our website for the whole Black Dog Ride community to enjoy. Thanks!
Online Shop
Winston is Mister Popularity at the moment (he's even been 'pinned' on Pinterest!), and we ask for your patience in the re-opening of the Black Dog Ride Online Shop. We're awaiting a new litter of Winstons and sourcing kennel volunteers to help us out.
Winstons await their new owners
Wrap up
A very sincere, albeit brief, thank you to all of our sponsors, the wonderful Lions, the brilliant Black Dog Institute, all donors, volunteers, support vehicles, our 'Angry' Ambassador (now known to Black Dog Riders as 'Socks' or even 'Angry Socks'), our celebrity Black Dog Rider Simon Bouda, our hard working Ride Coordinators, the awesome and invaluable Rachel Andrews - our Mental Health Liaison, and especially all the Black Dog Riders for making this Ride to the Red Centre the biggest and most successful yet.
Rachel Andrews cuddles up to BDR mascot Winston
Special mention to the man who founded and coordinates Black Dog Ride, the man whose passion to drag the black dog out into the open has made such an impact upon all of our lives. Steve Andrews, thank you.
It will be a little quiet around Black Dog Ride in the next few weeks and we ask for your patience while everyone has a little family time and sorts through the logistics of wrapping up an event of this size - whilst planning for the next Ride!
Keep the conversation going, keep raising awareness of depression and suicide prevention, together Black Dog Riders have made and continue to make a difference.
Questions, feedback, say hi, here: http://is.gd/YXDNFl
