{"id":259783,"date":"2020-06-16T18:44:53","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T08:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=259783"},"modified":"2020-07-10T12:15:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T02:15:03","slug":"josie-celebrates-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/06\/16\/josie-celebrates-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Josie Celebrates Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Josie Potter … her 10th “Brissie To The Bay’ fundraising ride was done in the South Burnett instead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

June 16, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

A cool and damp morning wasn’t enough to stop a brave bunch of cyclists from completing the Brissie To The Bay ride on Sunday … only they weren’t in Brisbane!<\/p>\n

Like so many things, the major annual fundraiser for MS Queensland was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n

The charity launched a “virtual” ride instead, challenging cyclists to nominate a total distance to ride over 30 days to mark the 30th anniversary of the event.<\/p>\n

But a bunch of South Burnett riders decided they’d go one step further … they’d ride the distance they had nominated originally for the Brissie To The Bay event, but do it instead on the South Burnett Rail Trail.<\/p>\n

Kingaroy’s Josie Potter – who lives with MS – has been taking part in Brissie To The Bay for the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with the disease 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

She’s surrounded by a team of supporters, known as the Kingaroy Cruisers, which also ride every year and help Josie with the fundraising.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the years, the group has raised an amazing amount of money for MS Queensland – almost $80,000!<\/p>\n

“It’s not bad as when we started out I was just going to ride one year on my own!” Josie joked.<\/p>\n

She had planned for this year’s ride to be her last, but the COVID cancellation messed up her plans.<\/p>\n

Determined to not let Josie miss out on her 10th ride, the Kingaroy Cruisers decided to take their challenge to the rail trail instead.<\/p>\n

Two of the riders – Claire and Craig Kapernick – nominated 100km, while Shirley Kerkow and Helen Kratzmann chose 130km.<\/p>\n

Kerry Stumm, Sheree Langan and Annette Kruger joined Josie with a 50km target, while Margie Williams joined the riders at Wooroolin for a 35km sprint.<\/p>\n

Riders started at 6:00am in Murgon, while others started in Wondai and Tingoora.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They all met up in Kingaroy about 9:00am to take a break and enjoy a hot breakfast at The Busy Bee.<\/p>\n

The Kingaroy Cruisers set their fundraising sights low this year – just $1000 – because of the pressures COVID-19 shutdowns have put on the economy.<\/p>\n

But by Saturday they had raised $1100, with donations still coming in to the Kingaroy Cruisers’ online\u00a0supporters page<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Will 2020 really be Josie’s last Brissie To The Bay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I’m still sitting on the fence because of this year’s situation using the rail trail,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I feel like this is not quite how I wanted it to end.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not reducing my involvement with MS Queensland and I will still be performing my MS Ambassador duties, but my riding has been a bit harder in the last two years and I\u2019ve now changed over to riding a pedal-assist E-bike with stabiliser wheel whom I\u2019ve affectionately named ‘Ernie E-bike’.<\/p>\n

“This has given me back a lot of my confidence and enjoyment of riding once again.”<\/p>\n

Josie was keen on the fact that this year the riders could stop half-way at Kingaroy and enjoy bacon and eggs …<\/p>\n

“Maybe we will start our own virtual ride here!”<\/p>\n

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