Edging closer to $1 million

It has only been a month, but it now seems like I have been back home for much longer.  We are still getting things back to the rightful owners and finalising other items from additional fundraisers since returning home.  We had our finale ball on Friday 25^th September which was organised by a group of friends while I was away.  The girls thought at first that it would be a problem getting 300 people to attend the ball, but it was the complete opposite.  The tickets more or less sold out within the first week and we had to squeeze in extra tables to then cater for the sponsors who also came to the event.  We raised over $60,000 on the night from auctions and had an additional $40,000 donated in cheques from various groups and individuals.

I attended the Newport Arms Hotel as the guest speaker for the Liquor Trade Lunch, hosted by the Bayfield family.  The Liquor Marketing Group (Bottlemart) have been a great sponsor and with the Bayfields help, the luncheon raised over $160,000.  The day was a huge success and all the companies involved didn’t let us down on the day with some great donations.

Will we make the million dollars?  I still believe we can.  We still have money coming in from both of these functions mentioned and other groups that have been touched during my event around Australia are still collecting money.  Active Trees have also been raising money and we hope to get a further donation from their staff’s efforts in the next month.

Keep watching the website as I hope to see the million mark flash on the web page in the near future.

All the best, Craig

Good to be home

Well isn’t it weird to be back home after three months on the road in the fantastic campervan from Sydney RV Centre.  As you saw earlier on the blog, we all got together on the first weekend back home and had a few quite drinks at the Newport Arms Hotel.  Since then, a group of friends and some of the support crew all came down to Brookvale Oval last Saturday night to help raise additional funds.  With the help of the Manly NRL team, I was interviewed on the field by Peter Peters while the support crew went around the crowd collecting donations.  It appears we raised around $9,000 from the collection with a crowd of 14,000 people.

Manly have since added to their support by having one of the great players donate himself to the cause for a day on Manly Beach.  Thanks Choc, this is much appreciated.

I have continued training to keep the body from shutting down and have gone back to Scenar Health for some recovery sessions.  We have still been busy with radio interviews and I will be live in the studio of 2KY/Sky Sports this Sunday between 8.30am -9am.

Our finale dinner that is fast approaching sold out in the first week and it looks like we are having about 400 guests to the function.  With money raised from this, and other donations still rolling in I am hoping to still climb towards the million dollar mark.  I will leave you this week with some additional footage not seen before on the blogs.

Cheers Craig

Lonely outback roads

Out on the water