Foster School Freedom Wheels Bike Presentation

A great day today for Live for Kids as we drove to Foster to present 2 of our Freedom Wheels Bikes to Foster School.

When we passed through Foster on the ride in September, the mayor organised a civic reception and invited the special needs teacher from Foster School, Karen. We were looking to identify a few kids to donate bikes to in Foster, but when we asked about that we realised that Foster School (infants and primary 800 students) had 4 classes of special needs children! Well that blew us away. So we decided to donate 2 bikes to the school so that all of the kids can ride them. At the time we offered an IOU for 2 bikes, and today we fulfilled that promise.

We arrived at the School with the Prime 7 news crew in tow, met Karen, and headed down to the dedicated special needs area of the school with the bikes.

The bikes always create a lot of interest and walking through the playground at recess was no exception!

We then ventured out into the special playground area where all of the lucky kids were. They were expecting the bikes, but didn’t know where to look when we arrived, should they be excited about the bikes, or Amy from Prime news who they all seemed to know! (Plenty of loyal viewers there!)

It became obvious that we were going to have trouble working out who was going to ride them first so we left that to the teachers.
They had a great little area set up with a track for the kids to ride around which Prime filmed.

After some interviews, we wrapped up and gave the kids a big farewell, and Karen took us on a tour of the facility at the school which was amazing, and brand new, with dedicated classrooms, common areas, playground etc.

We couldn’t believe the size of it with 4 special needs classes, with kids attending from as far away as Buladelah.

And they were all just so excited about the bikes! We promised them more next year when we visit them on the ride. It will be a great way to end the leg into Foster. We made a plan there and then for that visit, but that will have to remain a secret so its a surprise for the team, and it will be a big one!!

The highlights of the day were;

the look on all of the kids faces when they saw the bikes, and the excitement of the teachers

The joy of the kids riding the bikes

The story Karen told us of one of the kids you will see in the video below, who up until a few weeks ago wouldn’t have been able to ride a bike, but with some therapy, he jumped straight on and pedalled away! Seems to be a recurring theme with these bikes!!

As mentioned, Prime 7 covered the story today, and the link to that story is below. Enjoy!!

http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n1/video/-/watch/27178265/live-for-kids/

Day 6 Forster to Newcastle

We saw dawn break on our final day of the ride from our accommodation at Diamond Beach Resort as we prepared to head out to the highway. For safety reasons we had planned to transport the riders from the hotel to Nabiac to start the ride. However road warrior Ian decided to ride anyway!

After loading all of the bikes and riders into vehicles we took the short trip to Nabiac and readied ourselves for another long day on the bikes, which would start with the hills around Coolongoolook which was the longest hill we would face and the Buladelah Mountains. Around 160km!

So we set off from Nabiac and took it easy to get tired legs moving again. Soon enough we were into the hills which started to hurt those who were weary. The group did really well up the Coolongoolook hill which rises up into the distance and goes around a bend and keeps going. A cruel one!

After a good run down hill we then hit the Buladelah Mountains. The new highway is much less steep than the old road but that means the hills are much longer! And they just keep coming!! We finally reached Buladelah for our first rest stop. We couldn’t believe when we arrived that our average speed to that point was 29kmh! Given the mountains, that’s really fast. Our first indication that we were going to be ahead of time for the day.

Back on the road, and it was starting to warm up and we knew it would be very hot later. Again we were just flying along and doing a great job of keeping the team together. Our next stop was ‘the Rock’ for another break. At this stop thoughts were starting to turn toward lunch, and with lots of time up our sleeve a call was made to McDonald’s at Raymond Terrace so see if they would donate lunch to the team, which for the second time in a row they did for us!

The thought of free food must have inspired Mark Lee and Gail Sheil as they jumped on the front and led the team at breakneck speed at times all the way to the Terrace. At times we were riding at 38kmh up hill. But everyone managed to stay together, as the faster we went the sooner we got home (or free food!)

We rolled into McDonald’s at Heatherbrae and true to their word they dedicated a counter to us and 35 people placed orders one by one and the food just came rolling out. The team certainly enjoyed it!

With the warm weather we were running low on water. In steps a complete stranger from 24-7 vending with a huge box of spring water. That went straight into the fridge in the car to cool off and it came in very handy.

We then left Raymond Terrace and headed toward Adamstown and the start of Fernleigh track to join the Olivia’s Ride participants. The pace was a little slower now with the heat, and also the team enjoying their last ride together on the open road. A very enjoyable last 20km.

We made it to Adamstown around 15 mins ahead of schedule, and stopped at the start of the track and re-fuelled with those now cold water bottles!

We did contemplate a visit to Chris C’s house where he promised he had enough cold beer for everyone! But we decided that may not be the best option!

We farewelled the support cars that had looked after us so well and sent them to various points on Fernleigh Track to support the ride, and hit the track for our Olivia’s Ride to begin with everyone getting very excited to see their loved ones, riding and at the finish!

Day 5 Port Macquarie to Foster

Another Great Day. What else would you want to be doing than riding a bike on a. beautiful day.

We hit the road at 6.30 leaving Sails Resort, who again looked after us wonderfully well. As in the past we took the coastal route and took in the scenery along the beaches of Port Macquarie. First stop was a King of the Mountains challenge to the lighthouse. Ex Port Macquarie local Tristan seemed very keen having already won the King of the Mountains Jersey. At the bottom of the hill his parents turned up in their car and past the group with a large sign saying ‘Tristan was the best rider!’ That obviously did the trick as Tristan flew up the hill and took it out again.

We then rolled down along the coast and headed to North Haven for morning tea by the river. Such a beautiful place, and our riders always love it when we visit.

From there it is only around 5km to the highway at Kew, where we encountered our first stretch of new highway. The road surface on these roads is just fantastic and fast. We headed to Taree and made in well ahead of time.

We had a great reception at the Taree shopping centre hosted by Newcastle Permanent Taree. A walk around raised a lot of money, and everyone was expecting us as the local radio station had been advertising our visit all week.

Then back on the bikes and heading for Foster. Back on the highway we were again making good time but it was getting hot, and the first big climb out of Taree really hurt!

The locals certainly knew about us coming into town being on the TV news the night before, newspapers and radio. From the moment we turned onto the lakes way, every car blew their horns or waved and shouted encouragement. It was a great experience!

In no time on the lakes way we were again ahead of time. We were due to meet the local cycle action group and the police for an escort into Forster. Not sure where we were meeting, we found a big tree and took a rest. Simon, Dylan and Dana headed up the road by car looking for the meeting point and after some searching found a police car which turned out to be our escort.

After Simon gave the police a quick lesson in driving as a lead escort, we found the cycle action group and called up the team who rode in to the park, and the cycle group and police were a little stunned at the sheer size and scale of the group and support cars!

We introduced the group and headed into Forster from Tuncurry lead by a police car with lights flashing. What a sight. We even picked up a blind cyclist on a tandem bike in Tuncurry.

We arrived at the council chambers with all of the staff outside clapping and cheering on the group.

The mayor was there larger than life, making good on a promise she made to us 2 years ago! She even tried on one of Ian Ewarts yellow riding shoes named Neville!

After a speech by the Mayor, and Simon, the cycle action group presented us with a cheque for $200, the council $250 and a large tin which the council staff had passed around. All up over $700!

They then took us inside the chambers for a great afternoon tea provided by local businesses. These were consumed by the team at record speed!

Afterwards some of the team elected to ride back to Diamond Beach while others loaded their bikes and took the easy option in the cars. The later turned out to be the best option, with Ian setting a breakneck speed along the lakes way which left the riders collapsed on the ground back at the hotel!

Our team dinner was held at the Diamond Beach Resort, our accommodation for the night. Another great buffet!

After a briefing on the next and final day we did our awards.

Yellow Jersey – Mark Sheppard for an outstanding contribution on the road all week. Pink Jerseys (fund-raising) – Mark Lee and Peter Cornford
King of the Mountains – Robyn Platt for her efforts all week on the hills
Propeller Head Award – Mark Lee for his efforts drying his clothes on the ceiling fan in his hotel room
Queen of the Valleys (pink basket) Dylan Burt for her fantastic efforts all week in organising the event

In addition the team gave Dylan and Simon a standing ovation for all of their efforts in putting the ride together.

Olivia’s mum Dylan leading the team across the finish line for Olivia’s Ride

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Live on the bikes!

Winners!

A very happy boy with his new bike!

The heavyweights!