Day 10

After leaving Singleton the riders hit the road again and headed to Branxton where the lovely CWA ladies had made a smorgasbord of cakes, slices and sandwiches. Several people called in to give us donations and after a photo with the wonderful Ladies of Branxton CWA, they were keen to get back on their bikes to head to Newcastle.

Meanwhile back at Kenrick Street, The Junction, the Welcome Home Party was in full swing with lots of music, street stalls, jumping castle, face painting, Mr. Beaks, balloons, tattoos all happening. There was a real buzz in the air and everyone was waiting with much anticipation to see the riders arrive home.

The riders arrived at The Junction around 1.00 pm and regrouped into their Teams before heading into Kenrick Street where their families were waiting for them.

Amazingly Dean had phoned to say he would like to walk across the finish line with his Team mates. The riders were so amazed at the strength and courage of Dean and Sarah to be there and were so honored that they could cross the finish line with their team mate. Thank your Dean and Sarah for your absolutely selfless gesture of coming along to support our riders today - we are in awe of your strength and it meant so much to us all.

Orange Team crossed the finish line first followed by each other colour and then the amazing Support Team. The atmosphere and cheers as we arrived were incredible and everyone was very emotional as they saw the amount of people who had come out to greet them.

There was lots of hugs, tears and noise as riders landed in the arms of their loved ones after 10 days on the road, over 1000 kms peddled, 19 schools and 4,166 kids visited and introduced to Camp Quality and our amazing Puppets, and lifetime friendships made.

Everyone headed over to the stage area where we presented all our teams to our families, friends and supporters:

Team Jayco, Team Mingara One, Team CSA, Team United Colleries, Team Junction Hotel and Team Flightdance.

After this we introduced a special guest. Ben Emmett from Maitland Rugby Union surprised us all by presenting us with a cheque for $26,000.00 from a Charity Day that they held. An absolutely incredible amount and an awesome finish to our fundraising.

Now it was time to announce out final fundraising tally. There is still a lot of money coming in and lots of cheques not yet banked so this amount is "conservative".

With the amount that the wonderful Maitland Rugby Union presented to us added to our tally, we announced that we had raised $232,460.00. !!!

What an absolutely incredible amount raised and made possible by the generosity of so many.

But our excitement was not yet finished. Fairy King asked to give one last presentation. He then called Fairy Queen up onto the stage and in front of everyone, asked her to marry him - how exciting, and only after a mere 14 years together!! Congratulations King and Queen, we are all thrilled for you both.