everyday hero | Around Australia on a Yamaha Road Star

$2,500 Target Reached!

A red letter day today. Thanks to Bill K of Canberra – and everyone else who has donated of course – I have now made my minimum $2,500 in donations. And not before time too with the official start in Tenterfield now only 31 days away. That’s right, 31 and I will be counting down every single day until then!

The overall total for the team on Everyday Hero is currently at $68,816 with offline fundraising probably not far off that amount either. The overall target of at least $150,000 raised looks more than achievable, a huge outcome!

Another post or two will be made available in the coming days as the work I have been doing on my Yamaha Road Star has now been completed also. It’s a different looking bike to a few months ago that’s for sure.

Short Update

Oops, didn’t realise I haven’t put up any updates for a while, so to hit on some quick highlights:

I created a Facebook Group for the Around Australia ride. You can access it via this link and you don’t have to be a member of Facebook to see it. You’ll be able to see/talk to other riders and read about what we are up to.
The Everyday Hero Ride Around Australia Team has now raised over $47,000!
On the weekend I completed the master cylinder rebuild for both front and rear brakes on my Road Star. Finally I have front brakes operating normally again (take note any ’99 model Roadstar owners).
Oh, and did I mention there is less than three months to go?!!!

Over $30,000 to Answers for Kids Cancer

Steven Walter Foundation Logo Less than a month from pushing through $20,000 the Everyday Hero Ride Around Australia team has broken through $30,000 and is still climbing. Combined with the offline fundraising I would put the total well in excess of $60,000 that has been raised for the Steven Walter Foundation to the Answers for Kids Cancer program. What a huge effort! You can read a bit more about the Steven Walter Foundation at their website.

$20,000 raised for Answers for Kids Cancer

The Everyday Hero Team for the Around Australia Ride fundraising efforts have now reached $20,000! The Everyday Hero site provides a fast and secure method for riders participating in the event to fundraise the minimum $2,500 per bike being asked for to participate in the ride. In speaking with the Steven Walter Foundation recently I am told the money that has been raised offline will make this total significantly higher!

My personal tally is at $1,080 and with the end of financial year fast approaching there isn’t a better time to make a tax deductible donation to the “Answers for Kids Cancer” cause.

$500 Raised So Far

Thanks to Jeff D of Canberra – and everyone else who has donated so far – I have now reached the $500 mark in donations for the Steven Walter Foundation. There is still quite a ways to go to reach the minimum amount of $2,500 but I have very confidence the goal can be acheived.

If you would like to make a donation to the “Answers for Kids Cancer” program you can do so at my Everyday Hero Fundraising Page. Donations above $2 are tax deductible for Australians.

Fundraising via Everyday Hero

Fundraising is always one of those interesting topics, in particular how to receive donations and make sure everything is hunky-dory for tax purposes. In a recent update from the Steven Walter Foundation we have been advised they support the use of a site called Everyday Hero. Now I’m slightly familiar with the site as a colleague at work uses it each year for his City to Surf fundraising. Essentially you create an account, nominate the charity you want the donations to go to, and then start spreading the word.

What makes this site valuable to someone like me is that people can make donations directly to the Steven Walter Foundation without me needing to handle money and issue receipts. People who donate via the site receive an email with everything they need for tax time, quickly, easily and securely. It will also allow me to track how much fundraising I have done and how far I need to go.

But there’s more! They also have a Team Page ability where a person can setup a Team and have other people join. What this does is allows a Team total to be tracked as well as individual totals. So with blessings from the Steven Walter Foundation I created a Team page as well as my own page. We’ll see how this works out over time but it certainly looks like a great way to go.

Edit: the links to EveryDay Hero are no longer working as the ride is over, however I raised in excess of $3,000