The Riding For Disabled (RDA) centre in Burpengary got smashed by the recent floods. Everything was destroyed! All the equipment including electrical and computers were damaged beyond repair.
This centre is extremely important in the community, in a lot of cases it is the only physical activity disabled children get. The hard working volunteers come into the centre week in week out and are regularly moved when they are confronted by the disabilities and challenges these children have.
Watch the video and fill the form in below - Thank you so much for your support!!!
I used to do volunteer work for RDA in Burpengary.
ReplyDeleteI spoke to Jane tonight. Thank the stars the horses weren't there at the time of the flood, they were on holiday at a property quite well above the floodwaters.
Seeing this video, and having heard what Jane told me about the damage... I'm overwhelmed. I was there for the flood in '99, and that experience was nothing compared to what this flood was.
RDA runs almost solely from riding fees and donations from the public, if not purely solely. Alone, they do not have the money to rebuild and replace.
As a former volunteer of the Cartmill Center (only reason I'm not now is because it takes an hour each way to get there and back), I'm asking, on behalf of Jane, David, Pat, Wyn, and all the volunteers, riders, carers and horses at RDA, that if you were to chose any community group to donate to, please donate to the Cartmill Center.
As I've said, I'm a former volunteer of the Cartmill Center. And I can tell you straight up, RDA - not just the Cartmill Center, but *any* RDA, all over Australia - is a place the riders love to come. We often take riders for a bit of a trot. Yes, many need to be secured in the saddle by side walkers, but they don't mind. All they care about, right then, is not only being on the back of a horse, with mobility otherwise denied many of them, but the sheer pleasure they receive from going *fast*. It's only a trot to those able-bodied, but to RDA's disabled riders, it's going as fast as the wind. It's freedom, from a life in a wheelchair, or a life with impaired mobility. And the smiles on these riders' faces says it all - they *want* to be there, they *want* the freedom. A freedom that RDA can offer.
If only for these kids... Please help the Cartmill Center get back on their feet.
Thank you, and thank you very much to the maker of this video. I'm sure Jane appreciates it as much as I do.
- Rachael.