When the illness forced him to end his teaching career, Bill enjoyed spending time as a volunteer with the Rochester Golf Club — helping out with general maintenance and odd jobs for as long as he could.
Because of that connection, the golf club would eventually stage a MND awareness day at its regular AFL grand final Saturday competition for a number of years.
But according to club life member Peter Anderson, when the Victorian Government introduced the public holiday Friday for the day before the grand final, the club saw an opportunity to raise the bar.
“That’s when we thought we could set up an event which would attract golfers from around the region — and through entry fees, bar takings and an auction it would raise money for MND research,” Peter said.
“Bill was a really good bloke, and is still sadly missed by his many friends in and around Rochy.
“So making the club he loved to work at something of a regional hub for an annual event is a nice, ongoing tribute to his legacy.
“And the really good thing is it is getting bigger and better every year — last week we saw a record 117 entries in the mixed four-person ambrose.
“With players coming from as far afield as from Lockington, Mitiamo and Bamawm — and I made up a foursome with the players from Rich River Golf Club in Moama.
“We ended up with so many people that by the time everyone had finished playing we had pretty well run out of chairs for them to use — we might have to look at getting more before next year.”
Originally, Peter said all the money raised was initially sent direct to MND Australia.
Although the expansion to the wider event only began in 2015, when the public holiday was first gazetted, Peter said it was not connected to the more high-profile Neale Daniher campaign.
When the late AFL great was diagnosed in 2013, the club’s awareness event was already well established.
“But one thing which has changed is as a club, we decided each year as well as giving money to MND we would also direct part of the event’s takings to local causes,” Peter said.
“Since then we have handed money to the Rochester CFA, the local men’s shed, to Rochester and Elmore District Health and so on.
“We choose a beneficiary every year and since the Friday competition has started, we have donated more than $20,000, which is a great result all round.
“One of the highlights this year was local Paralympian — a gold medal Paralympian — Col Pearse taking part, and he got a big cheer when he bought one of the fundraising items being auctioned by Luke Ryan on the day. Although Col admitted he was a better swimmer than golfer.”
The annual Rochester Golf Club MND Charity Golf Day has a lot of local business support, with SportsPower Rochester and Nutrien Ag Solutions the primary sponsors.
17°C