By Gabriella Payne
A whole lot of heart and soul is being poured into creating the new Riding for Disabled ‘super centre’ on a beautiful block of land in rural Pakenham, but the dedicated team of volunteers are calling on the community to lend a helping hand to help make this dream a reality.
Situated on a sprawling 26 acre block of land on the corner of Bald Hill and Five Mile Roads in Pakenham, there are grand plans to build a state-of-the-art Riding for Disabled Australia (RDA) centre for the whole community to enjoy – but the team behind it are in dire need of funding to get the ball rolling.
Paul Beck, the Vice President of the new RDA centre and his wife Anne have been huge drivers behind this project, along with the President of the Pakenham RDA centre and former paralympic equestrian coach, Mary Longden.
Ms Longden said that hours of hard work had been poured into clearing up the site and that they had “really come a long way”, but added there was plenty more still to be done.
Mrs Beck, who’s daughter Sarah has a mental disability and has benefited immensely from working with horses, said that they were excited to have some facilities already on site, but they were in desperate need of funding and volunteer assistance.
“Once we are up and running and we’ve got the horses and the clients and what have you, I’m hoping that people will be interested, but it’s just a bit hard when they come and they see it the way that it is right now,” Mrs Beck said.
“You need the infrastructure, we need the fencing and water for the horses, and the arena is really important – and a safe arena. That’s the most important thing for everyone.”
Thursday 8 April, Ms Longden and Mr and Mrs Beck invited a number of guests including Cardinia Shire Mayor Brett Owen and Bass MP, Jordan Crugnale to come and visit the site, to hear their plans and pitch their ideas for the future RDA centre.
“What we need is major money, like we’re talking maybe a million dollars, to build what we would envisage as the best RDA centre in Victoria,” Mr Beck said.
Mr Beck said that the new centre would be for the whole community to enjoy and would not only have horses, but other therapy animals to help people with post traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.
The site is already home to a new toilet block, kindly donated by Todd Devine Homes and a designated carpark, made possible with truckloads of materials and manual labour donated by Fulton Hogan quarries – but there is still work to be done to get the place up and running.
Ms Longden and Mr Beck said that a working bee held on Saturday 10 April had helped improve the fencing on the property, so that the horses could be brought to site and programs could begin to run, but once winter hit, it would be hard to continue without a sheltered arena.
“When it’s not all weather, it’s either windy, wet, too hot, too cold, and so there are so many days when you can’t run it and then you can’t get the continuity,” Ms Longden said.
“It’ll be a place for the whole community and we’re on the brink of being able to have it now – but we just don’t at the moment.”
If you are in the position to donate or volunteer, the RDA Pakenham team would love to hear from you.
Visit http://www.rda.org.au/rdavic.aspx for more information.
