Causes

The Coast to Coast Bike Ride (now known as the C2K) began through the Cairns School of Distance Education P&C Association in 1996/97 to help raise funds to build a multi-purpose activity center for the school site in Cairns 

Later the decision was made to spread the benefits of funds raised to include communities and organizations across the North Queensland region. Fund’s raised are directed at supporting and benefiting kids who live in the remote rural areas of NQ. Today beneficiaries include: Cairns School of Distance Education, State primary schools – including Mt Garnet, Mt Surprise, Georgetown, Croydon, Normanton and Karumba as well as child care centres, sports associations and more. To date the event has raised and distributed in excess of $1,140,000. 

There is a rotating beneficiary each year; the 2021 ride is raising funds for the Cairns School of Distance Education. https://cairnssde.eq.edu.au/our-school/history  They provide home based learning to students from prep to grade twelve covering an area of over 300,000 square km. 

C2K started as a Road Ride and some years later a breakaway group created a Dirt Ride, named it the Dirty Boys (girls were always a part of the dirty boys) and gave it the catch cry of “Dirty Dirty Dirty Oi Oi Oi” Today it is a seven day ride from Cairns to Karumba spanning 780km,  there is the Road (bitumen) and the Dirt Ride, each evening both groups come together in a community and have fund raising activities which draw in local people from far and wide.  I am doing the Dirt Ride, this will be my second time, the first was 2017.

There is a lot of hard work behind the scenes by volunteers. The riders ride from 0700 to 1700, but the volunteers are  on duty all the time. It’s fun, and that’s the idea, raise funds, have fun, make friends while helping support kids in the bush.  

Any donations are greatly appreciated, if you donate direct it isn’t tax deductible, however if you sponsor me, it is and you can advertise your business name. If you are interested in sponsoring me let me know and I’ll give you the details.   

Thanks Fiona