September 1, 2017
Participants in this year’s Relay For Life have the opportunity to become car karaoke stars.
This year, Kingaroy’s Bill Hull Car Centre have decorated a seven-seat wagon in Relay colours, and they’re inviting Relay For Life teams to go for a ride with them and sing karaoke at the same time.
Videos of their karaoke efforts will be broadcast at this year’s Relay and the top three will be in the running to win cash prizes of $500 (1st), $250 (2nd) and $150 (3rd).
Relay For Life president Rowena Dionysius told a crowd of about 30 at a Relay For Life meeting at Kingaroy Showgrounds on Thursday night that Bill Hull principal Jacqui Hull had approached her with the idea, and she thought it was “fabulous”.
“All teams need to do is give Jacqui a call to arrange a time and pick a song they’d like to sing,” Rowena said.
“Jacqui will take them on a tour around town in her Relay van and video the end result.
“We’ll broadcast the videos on a big screen in the main oval of Kingaroy Showgrounds on Relay night (October 7-8).”
Jacqui said that since July 1 her business has been donating $100 for every vehicle the dealership sold to the buyer’s favourite charity, and Relay For Life was one of the charities most frequently nominated by customers.
This had made her think she would like to get more directly involved in the Relay, and the car karaoke idea came out of that.
“I’d be happy to see the teams dress up when they perform, and since the vehicle has tinted windows they don’t need to be shy,” Jacqui said.
Karaoke teams can be as big as six if they go for a drive, but larger teams can perform next to the vehicle if they want.
“We need to reserve one spot for a driver if we’re driving around town, but we can shoot a video with a larger group if we’re stationary.”
Rowena told the meeting that so far 46 teams had nominated to take part in this year’s Relay.
This was fractionally down on last year’s record-breaking team numbers, but since former team size limits had been lifted she suspected the same or even more people were involved.
At the moment, the highest fundraisers were the new Ride For Relay team who will be doing an epic five-day cycle ride from Kingaroy to Murgon, and then on to Camp Duckadang and back to Kingaroy, in the five days leading up to the Relay.
The Ride For Relay team has already raised $3254.
“We’ve all been surprised at how popular this has turned out to be, and I think that goes for the Ride’s organisers, too,” Rowena said.
This year the Relay is also enjoying a lot of corporate sponsorship.
Companies including PCA, Swickers, Crumptons and Telstra had stepped forward to assist.
Rowena said this year’s South Burnett Relay For Life target was $125,000, but she hopes to exceed this on the day.
Relay For Life teams who would like to take a turn at car karaoke can do so by phoning Jacqui Hull on (07) 4162-2833
