The recent Quick Street drag racing event at Kooralbyn air strip has been hailed as a success for raising funds and awareness for rural health in Queensland.
Local charity OzAid ran the event on 18-19 June in support of the Rural Doctors Foundation.
Beaudesert GP Dr Michael Rice, who is Chair of the Foundation, thanked everyone involved.
“Events like OzAid’s Quick Street help charities like Rural Doctors Foundation in a few ways. There’s the money raised through raffles and donations. We aim to be putting $300,000 into rural health every year, and that means we have to raise that, and then some more,” he said.
“Then, there’s the lift to our profile. To attract the community support that we need to do our work, people have to know who we are, where we are, and what we do.
“Events like Quick Street, Hibernian Race Day (also in Beaudesert), Hell of the West triathlon (Goondiwindi) and Beef Week (Rockhampton) give us opportunities to put our name out there and build awareness.
“Communities like Beaudesert can benefit from our work if, for example, we subsidise a defibrillator or a COVID MediHood in the town. Or, if a young doctor follows a rural career because the Foundation supported them to experience rural practice, to meet mentors and role models and to ‘give it a go’.”
