By Victoria Stone-Meadows
THE annual Cranbourne GP Run was reckoned a success by the City of Casey despite activities being cancelled due to wild weather.
Activity volunteers and stallholders were notified on Friday afternoon that due to the weather the activities planned in the side streets of Cranbourne had to be cancelled.
City of Casey Group manager Facilities and Events James Rouse said bike riders and spectators enjoyed the event nonetheless.
“More than a thousand bikes and the same amount of spectators enjoyed the 2016 Cranbourne GP Run despite the unpredictable weather,” Mr Rouse said.
“The weather was monitored throughout the week, however, following a severe weather warning on Friday morning, Victoria Police and council met to evaluate the risk to the community.”
“All volunteers and stallholders were advised Friday afternoon that the event would be scaled down with a few stallholders expressing their disappointment.”
The 2016 GP Run was supposed to be the first year the City of Casey partnered with the Casey Cardinia Foundation as the official charity beneficiary of the event.
Executive officer of the Casey Cardinia Foundation Therese Howell said while they weren’t able to fund-raise on the day, the foundation understood why their marquee had to be cancelled.
“I think that the organisers were taking the advice of police in regards to the weather predictions and they have the safety of everybody in mind,” she said.
“We are grateful they contacted us as early as possible, so we could let all our volunteers know and cancel them, they took the best advice they could.”
Ms Howell said the foundation was grateful for the opportunity to be the official charity for the GP Run and was looking forward to an ongoing partnership with the City of Casey.
“While we were a bit disappointed we absolutely understand and we’ll be talking with the organisers later this week; it’s hard for them to cancel things too,” Ms Howell said.
“We understand there is an opportunity for us to be the charity again next year, and hopeful that’s the case and as we are the region’s community foundation we are going to be discussing the potential for being the ingoing charity for GP Run. “
James Rouse confirmed there are ongoing discussions about the Casey Cardinia Foundation receiving ongoing exposure from the City of Casey Council.
“Given the limited exposure they received due to the scaling down of the event, council will explore future opportunities to partner with them,” he said.
