Wildlife Warriors Charity Run

WILDLIFE WARRIORS Worldwide (WWW) was established in 2002 by Steve and Terri Erwin. The aim of WWW is that people, wildlife and habitat should survive and prosper without being detrimental to the existence of each other. WWW is now one of the world’s most effective wildlife conservation organisations.

So what the hell has all this got to do with motorcycles and the biker lifestyle?

Just so happens that a little girl by the name of Chloe Tsangaris has just been crowned as the highest fundraiser for the WWW in the world. No mean feat for a six-year-old. It also just happens that I work in the same fibre packaging plant as her dad Chris.

Bob, another one of our co-workers, was one of the key organisers for the recent Victorian Bushfire Fundraiser ride. Bob and Chris got their heads together with the idea for another rolling money spinner to flow on with young Chloe’s efforts for the WWW.

Quite a talented pack of blokes I work with!

The day of the run arrived and the much anticipated weather was perfect. Around 75 bikes rolled up which isn’t too bad for the first running of an event such as this.

The departure time of ten o’clock was delayed a little to avoid running slap bang into the annual street parade at Laidely which was scheduled as the first stop for the ride. So at around 10.30 am, the pack rolled out with Bob in the lead, Chloe’s mum Kylie aboard a Spyder trike, and Chloe on the back of Shelby’s three-wheeler. Both Chloe and Kylie were sporting a couple of flash helmets which had been especially painted for the run by none other than Little Mick at Koolsville studios.

A short blast up the highway and the pack turned off at Marburg for a quick break at Grandchester for petrol and beers to avoid any nasty incidents of biker’s charity run vs. country town street parade.

Once in Laidley the raffles ticket were out and the run-goers starting to dig deep in the hope of scoring some of the top prizes on offer. A family weekend at Tangalooma, helmets, jackets, gloves, mugs, caps, T-shirts, a stack of gift vouchers, etc, were some of the farken great prizes and all kindly donated by the various businesses that Kylie had visited in the months leading up to the run.

Chloe had acquired a baby tree snake and was walking amongst the crowd in the sunny beer garden with the harmless reptile draped around her neck. It seems that some of the patrons suffer a little from Ophidophobia (Fear of snakes! Look it up; I had to!) and it was hilarious as we watched some big burley bikers giving Chloe and her scaled friend a wide berth when they realised what she was wearing as a necklace.

The lunch stop was at the Club Hotel at Esk. Jo and I opted to give Esk a miss and to go straight to the finish point at the Glamorgan Vale Hotel in order set up our camp site. Danny 666 took off in hot pursuit of the pack in the (well known) blood orange XR-8 interceptor to get the pics in Esk.

The lunch stop must have been nothing short of a feeding frenzy! It seemed as though we had only finished the tent erecting and had downed a couple of coldies when Danny came sailing down the road at a great rate of knots with the sound of the pack still roaring through the distant hills behind him.

Here’s where things got a little interesting!

Queensland’s premier Bikers Bar the Glamorgan Vale Hotel caters for all sorts of functions and it turned out that we were going to be sharing the venue with a heap of non-bikers who arrived on a bus to celebrate some bloke’s 60th birthday party. Talk about when worlds collide! The bus pulled up and the party goers watched in awe as the 70 or so strong contingent of bikers rolled up and filled the parking spots in front of the pub and commandeered the bar in record breaking time.

We turned out to be a bit of an added attraction for the 60th birthday party crowd. They ended up buying some raffle tickets, partying the night away with us after their celebrations were finished for the night.

The raffles were drawn and the post ride party was a massive one to say the least. No such thing as a quiet weekend at the Glamorgan Vale Hotel!

All up, the whole day was a huge success. A special thanks has to go to Garry’s Motorcycle Towing for offering his service at the last minute to act as the back-up vehicle. Turns out Garry blew up the motor in his trusty one-tonner on the first leg of the run and his son had to come to the rescue in the number two car. Good on ya Chris; much appreciated.

Chloe, Kylie and Chris would like to thank Bob for his organisation skills as far as the ride planning was concerned and all the riders who came along on the day. A big thanks goes out to the businesses who donated their goods and services towards making the day as successful as it was: Little Mick’s Koolsville Studios, Brett’s Custom Paints (for clear-coating the helmets), Shelby for providing the trike for Chloe, Team Moto, RXT for the two helmets, Tangalooma Resort, Paradise Resort, Brisbane Motorcycles at Windsor, Super Butcher, Bob Jane T-marts, and too many others to mention here. Crikey! I hope someone decides to do a fundraiser for ‘Brain Cell Depletion Due To Attending Too Many Fundraising Rides’; there may be hope for me yet. Cheers.

Pics by Danny 666 & Jo; words by Chuck U Farley