Karratha bikers’ toy run collects donations for Salvos

Karratha’s community-minded bikers have raised $1700 in food vouchers and donated 10 boxes of toys from their annual toy run to help out locals doing in tough.

For a 28th year, 39 riders from the Karratha Bikers Association and other groups took to the roads on Saturday, July 21 to raise funds for the Salvation Army by attaching fluffy toys to their bikes and riding from Point Samson to Wickham, Dampier and Karratha.

Money for the food vouchers was raised through fundraising on the day, while toys were donated by the riders themselves, and the collection was presented to Salvation Army representatives at the KBA clubhouse that night.

KBA member Shane Kilvington said the long-running event was the association’s Christmas present drive but ran in July to avoid the summer heat.

“It’s an event that’s on our calendar each year ... because it’s good for the children that would normally miss out on receiving presents because they’re not as fortunate, but they still get the opportunity to receive something through this ride,” he said.

Salvation Army Karratha Corps Captain David Boughton said the Salvos would distribute the donated toys at Christmas time and use the food vouchers to assist with back-to-school expenses early next year.

“We get toys and food hampers to give out at Christmas, so we’ll use these vouchers when everyone’s struggling again — that’s what we did this year and it proved pretty popular,” he said.

“Christmas is a hard time but then straight after Christmas everyone’s broke and there’s all these back-to-school expenses.”

He said the large donation would be a “massive” help to the organisation

“We can’t do it without the donations... so we rely on the generosity of people to donate things so we can pass them on,” he said.

“It’s very generous of (the KBA) —they do a lot of different community activities and to set aside a particular thing just for us, we’re grateful for.”