Riding for the Disabled does not receive funding from any State or Federal Government department.
We rely solely on fund raising and donations from interested community organisations to meet the cost of operating our centre. Our hardworking volunteers devote their time to raising the money needed to keep our centre operating. These funds ensure that people with disabilities in the Hunter Region have opportunities to develop their quality of life, self-esteem and independence.
We thank the following organisations for their contributions and support in 2011.
If you would like to visit individual organisation websites, click their logo.
Communities for Children Raymond Terrace & Karuah
Companion Credit Union and Community CPS Foundation
South Newcastle Rugby League Club
Companion Credit Union and Community CPS Foundation
Companion Credit Union’s goal is to build relationships with their members and assist them to achieve their lifestyle goals, financial success and to contribute to the improvement of our local communities through their Community Membership Program. Through the Community Membership Program, Companion Credit Union has made a commitment to make a positive impact on our community environmentally, economically and socially.
Their Foundation has been established to distribute grants to local non-profit organisations. Their aim is to make a valuable and significant contribution to the local community. The Foundation is funded by the Community CPS Australia Group, along with regular contributions from our staff, suppliers, our members and ongoing fundraising activities.
Companion Credit Union and Community CPS Foundation has proudly chose to support our Centre by providing $5,000 in grant funding to purchase a much needed therapeutic horse. Due to changing needs of the Centre, and an unexpected influx in horse donations/loans, Community CPS Foundation generously agreed to allow us to use the grant funding to meet the costs of the care of our entire 16 horse team.
Companion Credit Union has undertaken a further commitment to their relationship with our Centre. They have extended a partnership offer, which was gladly accepted. So far in 2011, Companion Credit Union has allowed us to have a display of photos of our Volunteers during Volunteer Week, borrow their projector (which we used for a presentation), provided money raised by the staff during out of uniform days and a movie night to purchase 10 helmets, and are currently sponsoring our RDA Regional Mounted Games.
If you would like to find out more about Companion Credit Union, please visit www.companion.com.au
South Newcastle Rugby League Club
The South Newcastle Rugby League Club has chosen to support our programs over hundreds of other community based projects in the Newcastle area, via the Newcastle area Community Development Support Expenditure Scheme (CDSE). They have generously provided grant funding of $8,400 to allow 20 financially disadvantaged people with a disability, who reside or attend school, in the Newcastle Local Government Area.
South's support of our Centre’s riding and driving programs will allow us to continue to provide quality therapeutic programs that meet the needs of people with a disability. We have invited representatives from Souths to come to our Centre to learn about what we do, and see our riders, drivers and volunteers in action. Tim Butler (President), Steve Pringle (CEO) and some of the Souths' Board have accepted the invitation, and will be coming to RDA on Thursday 15 September with a group of interested people.
This is he second time that South Newcastle Rugby League Club have helped RDA. In 2010, they provided $4,000 from the CDSE to pay for 150 individual rides for people from the Newcastle LGA during our 2010 riding program year.
The South Newcastle Rugby League Club is located at 46 Llewellyn Street,
Merewether.
For more information visit www.southleagues.com.au or call
(02) 4963 1120.
“The Salamander Recycling Centre is an independent not-for-profit organisation, run by the community, for the community. Supporting many local charities and organisations, [they] specialise in every aspect of material reclamation.”
The Salamander Recycling Centre understands that the first obligation of our Centre every year is to raise the funds needed to meet the costs of our programs. We are only able to allocate funds for various yard maintenance or repairs if additional funding has been provided by the community. As a result, during the 32 years of our Centre’s operation, our fences have received no ongoing maintenance and only repaired urgent.
The Salamander Recycling Centre were approached to see if they could assist us in repairing our fences by requesting financial support to purchase a post hole digger. They generously agreed to provide grant funding of $1,940 for this purpose.
Our Centre is a working farm, run by volunteers. Fences are vital to keeping our horses safe and to ensure that paddocks can be left empty, on a cyclic basis, to allow the grass to rejuvenate to provide feed. Fences that are in good repair will guarantee that our horses are not hurt by broken fence wire, nor able to escape to the highway. The post hole digger will also be used to dig holes for larger posts that would be positioned to help stabilise sections of our existing fences.
Salamander Recycling Centre is located at 360 Soldiers Point Road, Salamander Bay. They can be contacted on (02) 4984 6244 or via their website at www.salamanderrecycle.blogspot.com.
“Maitland City Council’s Community Grants Program aims to provide financial
support to local non-profit community based organisations/groups, and
individuals to provide projects that meet community needs and benefit residents
in our community. By providing Community Grants, Maitland City Council
acknowledges and values the significant contribution made by community groups,
organisations and individuals in assisting Council to achieve its vision for ‘a
safe and healthy city, a quality lifestyle, a vibrant and sustainable future’.
The purpose of the Community Grants Program is to assist in the establishment of
projects … that respond to changing community needs …” Maitland City
Council has provided $2,000 in grant funding form their Leisure and Recreation
category, which directly aims to provide opportunities to residents of the
Maitland Local Government Area (LGA) to participate in community based
activities that improve health, fitness and quality of life.
Maitland City Council understood that our Centre provides placements for
people with a disability who can not access therapeutic, educational or
recreational programs that meet their needs. As we have a large proportion
of our riders and volunteers who reside or attend school in the Maitland LGA,
Maitland City Council provided funding so that we can assist people with a
disability to change their own lives, by supporting them with riding and driving
programs that develop their physical, social and life skills.
At the presentation night, at Maitland Art Gallery on Monday 25 July, Aileen & Warren Cohen and Jude Oliver met up with Steve Proctor, who is now a Maitland North Ward Councillor. Steve has a long history with our driving program and visited RDA on Thursday 28 July to see how our Centre has grown. He was very impressed, and was very interested in organising a group of Maitland Councillors to come and see us in the future.
Communities for Children Raymond Terrace & Karuah
Communities for Children Raymond Terrace & Karuah have generously agreed to provide $500 in grant funding for our RDA programs. “The Communities for Children (C4C) Raymond Terrace and Karuah Initiative Community Activity Fund (CAF) provides small scale financial resources … to support community groups/individuals working together on activities that benefit children aged 0 - 12 and their families in Raymond Terrace and Karuah.”
Communities for Children are devoted to providing educational and early intervention programs for children in our community. They intend to make a long term difference in children’s lives, and felt that our programs were unique and needed their support.
The aims of RDA are strongly aligned with the goals of Communities for Children. Therefore, our application was given to the board for consideration and RDA was successful in gaining financial assistance for our therapeutic and educational programs.
We would like to thank Communities for Children for their ongoing support of our Centre. This is the second time they have provided financial assistance for our programs. In 2008, Communities for Children provided $1,000 to meet the costs of our Hippotherapy program.
The cost of office materials purchased by the Centre has increased in recent years due to inflation, even though our consumption has remained relatively constant. To offset this rising cost, we approached Officeworks Newcastle West for grant assistance from the Officeworks’ Local Store Donation Program.
Officeworks aims to partner with organisations that are a strong, natural match to activities which support educational opportunities and outcomes, activities that enhance local communities in which they operate and activities which support health and wellbeing initiatives for local youth.
Officeworks has chosen to support RDA, by providing a $200 gift card. The gift card was used to purchase regularly used and much needed office items which include one ream each of sand, green, blue and pink coloured A4 photocopier paper; one box of 500 window envelopes; one petty cash book; one pack of 100 A4 laminating pouches; two packs of 50 gloss photo paper; one A4 sign holder; one four tiered brochure holder; 24 pack of adhesive notes and one pack of 50 convention card holders.
Alexander Park Dressage Club has been supporting our Centre for many years. We are proud to be a sister club to Alexander Park, and we take great pride in their ongoing relationship and active interest in our dressage riding programs.
Each year the Alexander Park Dressage Club sponsors our Centre's Dressage Days by providing the funding needed to purchase the ribbons that are presented to all riders who take part on the day.
In 2010, Bruce McVey (President) presented Roly Taylor (RDA RT&LH President) with a $1,000 cheque to assist us in purchasing a specially trained dressage horse to fill a gap with horses that have been loaned or donated to us, and are not suitable for dressage. This is an incredibly generous offer from a group that understands the positive impact that our programs have on people with a disability.
In 2008, Alexander Park Dressage Club donated funding that allowed us to purchase a horse float
Local Lions Clubs Support RDA
The annual Maitland Ball in the Mall is held each January on the Australia Day weekend. It is organised and run by the collective efforts of all the region’s Lions Clubs with the aim of raising funds for local charities. The charities benefiting from the Ball in the Mall are selected by each of the participating Lions Clubs.
We were fortunate to be selected by the Maitland Lions Club as their nominated charity for 2010. The other participating Lions Clubs are the Kurri Kurri Lions, the Rutherford Lionesses, the Rutherford Lions, the East Maitland Lions and the East Maitland/Beresfield Lionesses.
A presentation dinner hosted by the East Maitland/Beresfield Lionesses was held recently with the Mayor of Maitland, Peter Blackmore, being the keynote speaker. Zelda and Malcolm Storey represented our Centre and accepted a cheque of $472 from each of the participating Lions Clubs.
It was great to continue our link with Maitland Lions. We won their hearts after a large group of them visited our Centre one Saturday and watched our volunteer team and riders doing what they do best. Having seen our Centre they asked if the money could go towards constructing an “all weather” shelter at the front of the arena where people with a disability, particularly wheelies, could get out of their vehicle and into a chair without being drenched when it rains. We look forward to continuing our relationship in 2011 with the Maitland Lions as the project eventually becomes a reality.
Revised: 17 October, 2011.