Townsville to Cairns Day 12 - Ride for Autism Can you believe we are only half way! But it's a big milestone in our quest to get more people talking about Autism in this country.
Chris Newbold Today is the 13th march and we headed out of Townsville very early because the people of Cairns have organised a huge day for us. First thing there is a group of riders who are meeting us about 1 hour outside of town to ride in together this will make a good public display so we can catch peoples atention. Then we begin our escort to the local stocklands mall where we will continue in handing out information about autism.
Then we will head back to the Coconut Palms Resort which has kindly donated for accommodation for the team. During the evening the Lions club has arranged that the local autistic community will come and have dinner with us and we have the opportunity to explain where we would like to take the charity into the future.
We got about 10km out of Cairns and we were met by the local radio station and radio star dodgy Donny (donette), and Clive from the Ulysses motorcycle club.
We headed through to the city and down to the beach to have some photos taken and do some television interviews. We then headed to the Stockland shopping centre where we spent the rest of the day handing information out and also meeting the local autistic community. I met some of the most incredible families today who are so committed to increasing the services in the country. We also met Richard and his family who are working so hard to improve not only his own family but he is also trying to get more services for everyone. Keep it going Richard.
We also met a great young man named Scott. Scott is 20 years old and autistic, we were at the coconut resort and Scott and I spent time on the amusement activities in the park, Scott then invited me to his house so I went with his family so Scott could show me his life at home. He is truly a remarkable young man; it was an honour to meet him and his family.
Tomorrow we start heading home.
published 13/03/2008 |