CohunaM2M has raised tens of thousands of dollars for Cohuna District Hospital this year.
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A cycling group has raised $24,000 for the Cohuna District Hospital by hosting a local legends footy match.
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CohunaM2M is a community group that has raised funds for the hospital since 1996 and participates in the Murray to Moyne, a two-day cycling team relay event.
The event has two goals: fundraising for health services, and promoting the benefits of cycling, a dream of its founder Graham ‘Woody’ Woodrup.
Group co-ordinator Mark Kingma said the Cohuna relay team had been on hiatus since 2017, but had made a return to cycling and fundraising recently.
Following a $15,000 donation last year, Mr Kingma took inspiration from local legends matches in the early 2000s for this year’s fundraising efforts.
“I was in my early 20s when they played, and I remember them being a lot of fun,” he said.
The group organised a Leitchville-Gunbower versus Cohuna Kangas over-35s legends match which drew an impressive crowd, helping to smash its fundraising target.
Players at the Cohuna Recreation Reserve for the Leitchville-Gunbower versus Cohuna Kangas over-35s legends match.
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CohunaM2M more than quadrupled its original donation goal.
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“We set out to make $5000, and we just started putting all these things together,” Mr Kingma said.
Merchandise sales, a barbecue, gold-coin donations and an auction after the game brought the total raised to $24,000 for the hospital.
“There was that many people that apparently the Kangas bar took $14,000 over it,” Mr Kingma said.
“It just snowballed... everyone jumped on board. Guys drove up, previous premiership captains, from Melbourne.”
The match was this year’s fundraising aspect of the Murray to Moyne ride, which took place from Saturday, April 5 to Sunday, April 6.
A group of 12 riders from Cohuna and a further six riding for the Deniliquin Health Service merged to form a relay team, riding from Cohuna to Stawell on the first day.
CohunaM2M riders covered an average of 250km over two days.
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One rider normally continues into the night before the team hops on a bus to Hamilton for safety reasons, where they begin the second day.
Finishing in Port Fairy as one group on Sunday under clear skies and with a tailwind, Mr Kingma said the riders covered an average of 250km over the two days.
“It was amazing this year. It’s the best one I’ve been involved in,” he said.
“We’ll definitely be back next year to do the ride and some more fundraising.”
CohunaM2M has raised over $300,000 for Cohuna District Hospital since its inception, with this year’s funds for upgrades to monitoring equipment in the operating theatre.
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