After a bumper first year on the bikes, the Late Fe-Mail Postie Bike Ride is off again in 2024, this time with nearly double the amount of riders registering.
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Moana Gilbert was among 37 women who took part in the 2023 ride. Collectively the women raised $200,000 for the charity Wings4Kidz. Wings4Kidz provides a free flight service for children with serious and life threatening illnesses who need to travel to the major hospitals from regional areas.
Moana is riding again, this time with a new cohort that will be joined by 68 riders, almost double the number of last year.
"It's very overwhelming, but in a very good way as well with the kindness of this community and everyone being so supportive and helpful," she said.
"I'm excited to meet new women who are very like-minded as well and see all the other girls from last year, so it'll nice.
"So it's going to be incredible to see what we achieve this year."
The group held a charity bowls day at Club Mudgee on February 17. "We had some incredible businesses around the community donate lots of gifts and bits and pieces for hampers," Moana said.
On April 3 the riders will leave from Gulgong and return to Mudgee four days later, having travelled around the Central West, fundraising, holding functions and having a blast.
Joining the cohort with Moana this year, Elle Sutton is excited to be part of the ride but admitted she needs some more time on the bike, having ridden for 'about two minutes' so far on her teal postie bike adorned with a snail decal.
"It's going to be an adventure, there's a couple of us who have just got our learners and we are straight into the deep end," Elle said.
"It [the bike] is originally from Sydney, so I only got it last year purposely for this ride... I'm excited to get away with the girls for a good cause."
These women aren't the only riders putting on an event to raise money.
Minn Toovey, like her counterparts, is taking part in the ride and held a charity day at the Courthouse Hotel at the beginning of March. Her group, the Courty Coasters, a six-strong team of friends and keen riders of varying skill levels are eager kick off the second year of the women's ride.
"It was amazing, I made a lot of friends and it's a bit of camaraderie doing it with the girls," Minn said of the first year. The Coasters held a fundraising day at their local pub, the Courthouse Hotel where they raised an impressive $9,500 on the day bringing the group's fundraising total to $12,000 as of March 4.
Wingz4Kidz CEO, Brendan Crane was in Mudgee to attend three separate fundraisers and reflected on the immense generosity of the community and wanted to remind people that Mudgee is the birthplace of Wingz4Kidz. On the inaugural ride in 2023, a whopping $200,000 was raised by the women with even more expected to be raised in 2024.
"It is our heartland. We've got five kids out in the immediate area that we help or have helped," he said.
"It's a very, very special thing that Mudgee has done in assisting to get this charity off the ground and continuing to ensure that it flies.
"We've got now over 70 kids that we help. We are 100 per cent volunteer based, so from that $200,000 that was raised last year, that goes 100 per cent to keeping the place flying."