Riders on the road to help homeless

Riders from the South West Riders Social Club jumped on their motorcycles for the annual blanket appeal ride at the weekend to help keep those less fortunate warm this winter.

Intown Centre board chairman David Bailey said the generosity of the Bunbury community and riders would make a big difference to those who were homeless this winter.

“There was more than 70 bikes that took part in the ride, which departed from Collie before working our way down through Australind and then into Bunbury,” Mr Bailey said

“It was quite good but it is hard to say how many blankets we did get, but it was well over 200 blankets.”

Mr Bailey said the Intown Centre had already given blankets out to those in need and asked community members to get involved by donating any of their own unwanted goods — not just blankets.

“We’ve already started to distribute blankets not only to clients that come into the Intown Centre but also to the Salvation Army and other agencies that have something to do with the homeless people,” he said.

“We ask the community to get behind any of these initiatives and organisations, including ours, in the next coming months and we are happy to accept blankets or anything at any time from people.”

The Intown Centre will be hosting The Big Sleep Out event on Saturday, July 6 to raise awareness of homelessness and much-needed funds, to help vulnerable community members.