Family raising funds for MND visits Kempsey

The Wolters stopped in at Kempsey yesterday afternoon for a swim at the pool and a bit of a break from the 100 kilometers they travel each day. 

Jozef, Diana, Cloe (14) and Jack (13) left Bundaberg on January 28 2018 and have now travelled over 17,000 kilometers and have raised $43,000. 

“It’s been an absolutely wonderful journey and people have been very supportive everywhere we have been,” Mr Wolters said.

The decision to raise funds for MND is a personal one for the family. 

“My father passed away from Motor Neurone Disease 18 month ago and a good friend of Diana’s her sister also passed away from the disease,” Mr Wolters said. 

Mrs Wolters said the generosity from communities they have been to has been amazing.

“We’ve raised $43,000, our goal is $50,000 so we’re really close to getting there,” she said. 

“It’s nice to come to places like this where people understand and we find communities like here in Kempsey are more generous than the cities, people notice and want to support us.”

The idea of the ride came about, Mr Wolters said,  because they wanted to do something that would grab people’s attention.

“I was guilty of thinking of the bike ride idea, I thought everyone drives around Australia but if you want to get attention along the way then you need to do something different and hence the bike ride. The first couple of weeks were a bit strenuous but after a few weeks it became easier,” he said. 

Cloe and Jack have also been completing their school work while being on the road. 

“They’re still enrolled in their school in Bunderberg. Jack completed Year 7 and Cloe completed Year 9 and they will be going into Year 8 and 10 when when school starts on January 29,” Mr Wolters said.

“They’ve done well even though it was challenging at times for them to do their schooling because of the remoteness and not having a classroom environment but we assisted them with their work which helped a great deal.”

Throughout their time on the road, the Wolters have tried to free camp as much as possible, with all of the funds they have raised going directly to MND.

“We are 100 per cent self funded, all of the money we raise goes straight to MND, we don’t take any money out of it at all,” Mr Wolters said. 

“We try to ride about 100 kilometers a day on average, so we need to be at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

“As soon as we get to Brisbane we have done every state, territory and and capital city in the country.”

Once they get back to Bunderberg they will have travelled 18,000 kilometers in a year and hopefully raised $50,000 for MND. 

“We follow the MND moto, Never Give Up. So we didn’t,” Mr Wolters said. 

If you would like to read more about the Wolters’ journey you can like their Facebook page and if you would like to donate visit their website here. 

Stay ahead with local news by signing up for the Macleay Argus newsletter here.