The 5th annual Chartered Accountants ANZ Tour de North West charity bike ride was held in Armidale Sunday 27 October 2019.
The ride set out from stunning Petersons Guesthouse & Winery Armidale taking participants to Gostwyck Church and Blue Hole Picnic Area before looping back. Weather conditions were perfect with over 200 participants enjoying the ride followed by a gourmet lunch and live entertainment in the garden at Petersons.
This year the event raised funds for local charity BackTrack with $7,667.31 raised! In even more exciting news, the Count Charitable Foundation (CCF) have confirmed they will dollar match this fundraising effort with up to $7,500, taking the total amount for BackTrack up to $15,167.31!! The CCF is an initiative of Count Financial Limited, an organisation for which Roberts & Morrow is a member and licensee. As part of the relationship Roberts & Morrow has with Count, the firm has access to generous dollar matching offered by the CCF for any charitable fundraising conducted, provided their guidelines are met by the fundraising event.
BackTrack are a not-for-profit local charity, doing some incredible work helping youth who are having a hard time, get back on track! The kids BackTrack works with are mostly aged between 12-19 years of age. They arrive at BackTrack with lots of complex challenges including education, health, justice housing and employment making it hard to fit into mainstream society. The BackTrack program enables these youth to find a new path, build confidence, heal psychologically and develop skills and training to become work ready. A big part of the program is the kids working with working dogs and training them.
BackTrack provided an incredible performance on the day with some of the kids running demonstrations with the working dogs and then a Calcutta to get the crowd bidding on the dogs for the jumping competition. It was incredible to see relationship the kids have built with their dogs, an important part of their journey with the organisation.
A big thanks goes out to the sponsors of the day; Chartered Accountants ANZ, National Australian Bank (Local Armidale Branch) and MYOB Australia! And of course our generous supporters: Mark Bullen and family from Armidale Bicycle Centre, Armidale Cycling Club and St John Ambulance, as well as a huge number of volunteers who make this all possible!
