Giving it a Bash!
September 2, 2011
Mark Bowring
By GRANT MAYNARD
THE smiles on the kids faces said it all. The Variety Club Bash visit would be recalled as the highlight of their school year.
But, if truth be told, it had a similar effect on the ‘bashers’ making the visit.
Visiting remote schools and communities in South Australia’s outback was the highlight of a journey jam-packed with memories for third-time ‘basher’ Mark Bowring.
Just back from eight days of ‘bashing’ through some of South Australia’s more remote areas, he is already planning participation in event number four.
The bash itself, he explained, was really the culmination, and celebration, of 12 months of fund-raising, that this year raised $1.47million across the nation for children in need.
And this year, Mark’s Hog’s Breath-sponsored team, comprising himself, his brother Graham and friend John Day, both from Melbourne, raised a whopping $32,000 towards the cause.
They were ninth in the top ten fund raisers of 2011 for the South Australian event.
It is an achievement Mark is extremely proud of, especially considering more than half the total was raised right here in Sunraysia.
Mark is a familiar sight around the district as he sells raffle tickets, and cooks sausages, to help fill the fund raising coffers. He has already started on what he hopes will be a new, record-breaking fund raising effort for his team in 2012.
He was at last weekend’s Wentworth Show, and will be at this Sunday’s Red Cliffs Country Market, rattling the can and cooking sausages.
“We’re aiming for $45,000 in 2012,” he said.
Now in its 23rd year, the Variety Bash is one of the nation’s leading fund raising events and has raised a total of $27million since its inception in 1985 by adventurer Dick Smith, when he took a group of friends for a drive he called ‘The Bourke to Burketown Bash.’
After more than a week on the road, and covering a total of 2633 kilometres, Mark, Graham and John were among 300 people in more than 100 vehicles who crossed the finish line in Hahndorf, having left King William Rd, Hyde Park, a week earlier.
“Really it was drive from Adelaide to Hahndorf,” Mark jokes, “but via towns including Blinman, Innamincka, Arkaroola, Leigh Creek, Wilpena and Peterborough.”
The intrepid Irymple group’s bright yellow 1974 Ford Fairlane performed flawlessly, the only glitch being a flat tyre. No worries, the team carries a couple of spares as well as plenty of fuel, water and other essential thirst-quenching supplies, as well as tools and spares.
The car, now three bashes old, is yet to let the team down in any significant way.
Mark keeps it is fine fettle year-round, fixing problems as he finds them and ensuring it is ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Mark says the visits the bash cars make to schools and communities are a big thrill for all concerned.
“The kids love the cars when they pull up outside a school,” he said.
He said the organisers of the event often make sure these visits coincide with a Variety Club presentation to a school or community.
“One stop this year was on a station property where there were several children with disabilities,” Mark said.
“Our money was helping keep their Riding for the Disabled program running, and providing a new stove for their kitchen where they do cooking lessons.
“It was nice to see how the money we raise really makes a difference for disadvantaged kids.”
Mark said Philip and Trish Palmer, of Overnewton Station, west of Ivanhoe, had generously kick-started his 2012 fund raising effort.
“At last weekend’s Wentworth show they generously gave me a cheque for $2000.
“Philip and Trish are among a growing number of graziers who have switched from Merinos to Dorpers. Who knows, maybe one day we may replace the ‘Hog’ on our Variety Bash Car with a Dorper!”
For generously contributing to the 2011 fund raising and bash effort, Mark thanked the following firms and individuals for their help: Tasco, Tyrepower, Danco, Red Cliffs Golf Club, Bill and Wilma Bowring, Barry Reddick, Brad Tessier, Robert Dean, John Palmer, Barry and Heather Mills, Lyn Tonge, Gavin Tellefson, James Golsworthy Consulting, Rod Atkins and the Mildura Brewery, Red Cliffs Club, Irymple Newsagency and Post Office and Hogs Breath Café for allowing a donation tin on their premises.
• NOTE: Mark added the winner of the latest raffle he has drawn, for a $200 voucher from Bunnings, Mildura, was Ray House, of Mildura.
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