The last fortnight has seen the Harriers last Thursday run, last weekend event, and last social gathering for the year. And what an amazing year it has been. The achievements of so many members, within the club, representing the club, and outside the club, has been fantastically inspirational.
As the club’s Christmas photo attests, we are in a very good position, with growing membership, we’re in a great financial position, and members want to be around the club.
The end of the year brings many thanks and acknowledgements, to those that have contributed so much to the club over the last year. Firstly, thanks to Chris Van Unen who does a lot of our social media management. Thanks to Barry, Corny, Foxy, Molly and Miles, who make up our media team. And thanks to our AV Captains Greg, Miles and Callie who did such great work with our club AV team.
Our club events can’t run without members stepping up to organise them. In the last year, the club ran 9 different weekend events, on top of the 48 Thursday organised runs. So a huge thanks to our Race Directors, Ron V (K&Q), Kaye & Molly (Boolarra), Desley G (Marathon & Wirilda), Trent & Clinton (CFR), Sep (Ed Hunter), and Greg & Miles (Crinigan Rd).
A big thank you to our amazing Newsletter Editor Glenn Crawford, who does a mountain of work each fortnight, creating a wonderful communication tool, which I know you all read!
On behalf of all members, I’d like to acknowledge the club’s general committee members for their time, skills, work and dedication to the club. Nothing happens without them. Thanks to Andrew Broberg, Ash Dugan, Clinton Jolly, Danelle Wright, Desley Gray, Giuseppe Marino, Greg Semmler, Kate Mayer, Kaye Livingstone, Marieka Reilly, Molly Irvine, Ron Verschuur, Tobi Grzmil, Trent Kooyman, and Yani Cornthwaite.
Also thanks to our Executive team, VP Andrew Legge, Treasurer Ann Bomers and Secretary David Barr for their incredible year of input.
Thanks to Giuseppe Marino for organising our Xmas Bash Presentations and Awards for the Winter Season. Congratulations to all the category winners.
Top 3 Male Group 1 / Walkers
3rd Place: Timothy Graham
2nd Place: Ian Heafield
1st Place: Barry Higgins
Top 3 Female Group 1 / Walkers
3rd Place: Kathy Quinn
2nd Place: Michelle Colwell
1st Place: Kristina Creighton
Top 3 Most Consistent Runners
3rd Place: Ann Bomers
2nd Place: Ron Verschuur
1st Place: Phillip Mayer
Top Junior Runners 4th – 10th
Seth Bomers |
Lucy Magaldi |
Benjamin Marino |
Remey Podmore |
Johnny Roscoe |
Amelie Dalton |
Jack Marino |
Top 3 Junior Runners
3rd Place: Jerzey Podmore
2nd Place: Belkey Podmore
1st Place: Dempsey Podmore
Top 3 Female Runners
3rd Place: Yani Cornthwaite
2nd Place: Ree Graham
1st Place: Molly Irvine
Top 3 Male Runners
3rd Place: Davide Barr
2nd Place: Clinton Jolly
1st Place and winner of our 2024 Winter Championship Season: Adrian Sutcliffe
As the club has grown over the last 6 years, we’ve changed, improved and extended our season awards to better reflect the participation by members across different categories. It’s not just the fastest times that deserve recognition. With that in mind, VP Andrew Legge presented the very important QUIET ACHIEVER AWARDS to Kate Mayer, Kat Kent, Danelle Wright, Tobi Grzmil, Cat Leonard and Megan Scott.
The President’s Award, which is in Appreciation For Dedicated Service to the Club, goes to those who go over and beyond, who donate their time, ideas and energy to making the club a better place.
Previous President’s Award winners include Bryan Cake, Edi Murat, Andrew Legge, Kaye Livingstone, Alfie Warner, Ann Bomers, Greg Semmler, Stephen Renehan, Miles Verschuur, Pete Sanders, Clinton Jolly, Danelle Wright, Giuseppe Marino, David Barr, Andrew Broberg, Molly Irvine, Desley Gray, and Trent Kooyman. If you get one of these, you’re in good company.
We presented awards to two deserving members who really earned it this year, by building on their work over the last couple of years. Whether its race directing, supporting at events, organising things in the background, being on committee, or just being genuinely good humans, the awards deservingly went to, Ron Verschuur and Marieka Reilly.
The prestigious Club Person of the Year, is awarded for Outstanding Service to the Club. Previous awardees include Legge, Ann Bomers and Kaye Livingstone, all club legends, and this year’s recipient certainly fits the bill. The Harriers Club Person for 2024 is Giuseppe Marino.
Sep has done a mountain of work for the club over many years, and this year he’s taken on learning the ropes, supporting me in a stack of responsibilities, and he is no doubt a future leader of the club.
The last award we presented was Life Member of the Traralgon Harriers. As I have mentioned many times, a healthy and well-functioning club acknowledges and appreciates the people who contribute to making it a great place. And this person has been absolutely outstanding in their contributions, doing more than most people know, behind the scenes, humbly not looking for accolades, just wanting the club to be the best. He is selfless, has been a mover and doer of the club for over a decade, he is tireless in his ideas, and in his willingness to make things happen, to contribute to the life and vitality of this organisation. It was unanimously voted at the AGM in June, and I was proud to install Andrew Legge as our newest Life Member.
A reminder that club events only happen if we have members put their hands up to organise them, and of course, members vote with their feet by showing up to actually run them. The Harriers charter says we have to run a certain amount of weekend events, but sometimes these things get stale and need refreshing, so we are looking at how we can enliven our smaller club events to attract more members and guests. The committee is always open to suggestions and ideas, so you have any, share with a committee member. Likewise, if you’re interested in becoming a Race Director, we’d love to hear from you.
Remember to have a think about our Winter Run schedule. Safety is always a major consideration for the club, and protecting club members is a really important aspect for all our events, and especially for Thursday runs. Many of our club winter runs were established in the past, when Traralgon wasn’t as busy, with less traffic and road crossings, and some of them now are becoming untenable as the population of Traralgon grows. We need your suggestions for new runs, which are safer, consider winter aspects of lighting, roads, traffic, volume of runners on course, trip hazards etc.
If you have a suggestion for a run in town that you think may fit the bill, have a chat with a committee member so we can consider it, do a safety audit, and hopefully include some new runs to replace some of the more risky winter Thursday courses in 2025.
Remember, the club’s X’mas Lights Run has been rescheduled to Friday 20th December. It will be about 7k, everyone is welcome to join, and we’ll meet at the Traralgon netball court clubrooms on Breed Street at 8pm. Keep a look on socials for further details.
To all members and club friends, I wish you a safe and merry break, and a wonderful and prosperous New Year. We return on Thursday 16th January for our first run for 2025.
*IMPORTANT Harriers Dates
20 Dec Club X’Mas Lights Run Traralgon (Friends and guests welcome)
16 Jan 2025 First Harriers Thursday Run for the year
23 March 2025 27th Harriers Community Fun Run (RD Trent Kooyman & Clinton Jolly)
1 June 2025 58th Harriers Traralgon Marathon (New start location) (RD Desley Gray)
Phill Mayer – President
*Duty Roster Summer 2025
REMEMBER: If you can’t fulfil your allocated duty, the onus is on you to swap with someone.
JANUARY
16 Megan Scott & Paul Smith
23 Stephen McLeod & Kylee Earl
30 Peter Fairbairn & Catherine Leonard
FEBRUARY
6 Darrel Cross & Alfred Warner
13 Angeline Snell & Geoff Francis
20 Elizabeth Kenney & Mandy Ellis
27 Maree Graham & Stacey Podmore
MARCH
6 Luke Witham & Timothy Graham
13 Collette Hofmann & Anja Norwood
20 Gay Cornthwaite & Owen Notting
27 Glenn Graham & Michelle Sawyer
APRIL
3 Newborough Track (volunteers please)
