{"id":102695,"date":"2026-02-28T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/?p=102695"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T11:18:33","slug":"a-ride-for-fun-and-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/news\/a-ride-for-fun-and-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"A ride for fun and friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VETERAN Free Riders from Heathcote will join a ride to Albury Wodonga next month in support of members who have been involved in firefighting and support tasks recently.<\/p>\n<p>Victorian Free Riders will meet up with New South Wales Free Riders for the event<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are a veteran and first responder club,&#8221; said Veteran Free Riders member Dan Fitton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Due to the recent fires, a lot of our members have been busy fighting fires or doing support tasks both here and near Albury.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, one member saw his parents&#8217; house burnt.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/25\/2026\/02\/VeteranFreeRiders2_46046.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Veteran Free Riders welcome anyone who would like to join the ride whether or not they are veterans.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a show of support, and due to a lot of our boys being involved in recent events, we decided to ride to Albury, decompress and just have fun.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Many military vets transition to SES or CFA to stay committed to their community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We value all tiers of service highly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Fitton has been a member of SES Heathcote Unit for five years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our plan is to ride up to Albury on the Saturday 7 March and stay for two days,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will ride a loop of lake Hume and enjoy a barbeque and some good old country hospitality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anyone in Heathcote is most welcome to come along regardless of whether they are a vet or first responder.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The aim is fun and friendship.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Anyone who would like more information can go to Veteran Free Riders on our Facebook events page.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VETERAN Free Riders from Heathcote will join a ride to Albury Wodonga next month in support of members who have been involved in firefighting and support tasks recently. Victorian Free Riders will meet up with New South Wales Free Riders for the event &#8220;We are a veteran and first responder club,&#8221; said Veteran Free Riders [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/mcivortimes\/news\/a-ride-for-fun-and-friendship\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":102701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-102695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A ride for fun and friendship - McIvor Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Join the Veteran Free Riders on March 7 for a support ride to Albury. 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