Additional highlights
Never be pigeonholed. Here’s some of our sui generis successes this season.
Dennis Harris receives Order of Australia Medal
Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club congratulates life member Dennis Harris who was announced as a recipient of the prestigious Order of Australia Medal in the 2019 Australia Day Honours.
Dennis was presented the award at Government House on 3 April 2019 for his work since the mid-1980s on fundraising for the club and San Remo Channel Challenge.
Stafford Smith receives Order of Australia Medal
20-year member Stafford was awarded the Order of Australia Medal on Queens Birthday, June 2019 for his service to lifesaving and education, running countless camps and events through Upwey High School resulting in hundreds of new club members and students learning the importance of beach safety.
San Remo Channel Challenge record entries, rescheduled
2019 San Remo Channel Challenge saw a record number of entrants thanks to an dramatically increased digital marketing campaign thanks to Greg Harbour and a profile article in The Age celebrating deceased local personality, The Age editor and inaugural winner, Michael Gordon’s love of the event, thanks to Ron Nicholson.
2019 was also the first year the race was called off due to dangerous weather and water conditions.
Rescheduled to 23 March, the second running still attracted a significant number of original registrants, as well as many new registrations, helping to mitigate the doubled costs of re-running the event.
Congratulations to Ron Nicholson for pulling together the rescheduled event so effectively, Max Eldridge and his water safety team for prioritising the safety of competitors and crew in the originally scheduled event. Along with Max and water safety, thanks to Mick Sullivan and team, and all our volunteers, for rerunning the event on 23 March.
Inaugural Little Penguin Dash
Woolamai Beach SLSC successfully initiated and marketed a new kids’ aquathon event for 7 to 14 year olds to address several market opportunities, including demand from the age group to participate in Bass Coast Series aquathons and provide a drawcard curtain-raiser for Cowes Classic — our cooperatively-run aquathon with Phillip Island Football Netball Club.
Congratulations and thanks to Susan Fawaz, Max Eldridge, Graeme Burgan and their teams for ensuring a fun, successful and — most of all — safe day for our new cadre of aquathon competitors. Thanks to Mick Sullivan for his work on the day including water safety, set-up and tear down. Thanks also to Greg Harbour for initiating the event in close collaboration with Ron Nicholson and Phillip Island Football Netball Club’s Simon Manning.