More than 75 cyclists have taken to rural roads for the seventh annual Royal Far West Ride for Country Kids.
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This year the cyclists rode 450 kilometres over three days from Dubbo to Cobar, stopping at various towns along the way including Narromine, Nyngan and Warren.
The annual ride, which kicked off on Sunday, brought cyclists from Sydney and other country locations like Orange to explore country towns while raising funds towards supporting far west kids and their families.
Royal Far West executive director business, people and culture Jacqui Emery said this year's ride was a little more special than usual.
"It was a great year, we had a wonderful combination of riders that have been with us on every ride, but also a lot of new riders, which gave it a whole new feel and introduced a lot of new people to the challenges and beauty of country life," she said.
"We also finished in Cobar this year, which is our spiritual birthplace with our founder Reverend Stanley Drummond coming for Cobar.
"Every year we do a different route, this year being Dubbo to Cobar and we haven't been to Cobar before.
"That was incredibly special to go into a town with so much history, not only of Stanley Drummond but of The Royal Far West. We were so well greeted in every town, but especially Cobar.
"It was also a big ride this year. Normally we have between 60 to 70 riders, this year we had 79."
Ms Emery said although the bike ride is the events major element, it is also an opportunity to educate outsiders on country life.
"What makes the event more special is we have a lot of community engagement in each town and we bring in a lot of money.
"We also visit schools, this year we visited St Mary's in Warren and that was fantastic. We also did a tour of the gold mine in Cobar, so we're trying to educate the riders on our country towns."
Ms Emery said another highlight for the 2021 ride is that they have exceeded their fundraising target.
"We set out to raise $450,000 and we actually raised $480,000, and donations are still coming in," she said.
"All of those funds are going to help get kids into our paediatric development program which is based in Manly. So all these country kids go to manly to receive these services. Normally these children have really complex developmental needs."
Ms Emery said The Royal Far West usually needs to come up with about $3,000 for every child, which means they have raised enough money to help around 160.
"Our target was about 150 kids, so we are thrilled to have enough for about 160 kids," she said.
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