THE national spotlight will shine on Portarlington later this year when Daniher\u2019s Drive takes a pit stop in the seaside town.<\/p>\n
The FightMND fundraiser, which sees about 80-100 cars travel across parts of Australia in a four-day extravaganza, will visit Portarlington on October 10.<\/p>\n
Portarlington’s Geoff Fary made the announcement last week during a Portarlington Business Development Association function at Bouchon at Bellarine.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of you know that for some time now I\u2019ve been involved in Neale Daniher\u2019s organisation raising funds and awareness for Motor Neurone Disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think most of you know that my family has been touched by MND, as have other families in Portarlington and across the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Fary is an ambassador for the FightMND foundation and has been involved with Daniher\u2019s Drive for the past three years.<\/p>\n
He said he was recently advised that in recognition of the extraordinary support the community of Portarlington had given the foundation over previous years, the 2019 Daniher\u2019s Drive would set out from Werribee Park Mansion on the morning of October 10, and its first stop would be Portarlington.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we will be spending about an hour here and there will be fairly considerable national publicity associated with it and a number of major, and not just AFL sporting identities, but test cricketers and the like, so it will be a great opportunity to showcase the marvelous town and the marvelous region we live in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo put it in your diary, it will be at about 10am on October 10, which ironically would have been Monica\u2019s 67th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are talking to the City of Greater Geelong and it\u2019s highly likely that we\u2019ll close the main street for a few hours with various activities in the park near Parks Hall and a lot of television coverage and the like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Fary said since Monica\u2019s death in 2016, Team Monica Hayes had raised almost $60,000 for the incredibly important cause.<\/p>\n