Dingley Dozen Fun Run & Walk
About Us
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Dingley Dozen Fun Run & Walk About Us |
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In late 2002 the Dingley Village Lions Club was formed as a branch club of Clarinda Lions Club and is still in 2011 a branch club. In 2004 the club had 6 members and in 2011 there are only 8 members however, Lions Clubs in our area band together and produce 35 marshals which make it possible to hold the Dingley Dozen. Our primary sponsor is Parks Victoria.
The Dingley Dozen started as a nub of an idea formed following a chance discussion with a member of the Caulfield Lions Club. They had held a project that involved members of the public doing a "Walk around the outside of Caulfield Race Track". Following this discussion in 2003 it was decided to organize an event at Braeside Park as a fundraiser for local people in need and to promote healthy activities and a fun time for families.
A committee was formed in mid 2003 including the Dingley Lions and Lions from Clarinda, Carnegie and Mordialloc Mentone. Every conceivable activity that we could think of that may be needed to hold the event was scheduled and members of the committee visited some other athletic events to cement our thoughts. The "Dingley Dozen" was coined by Frank Grant from Clarinda Lions and we established the main event as 12km.
The inaugural Dingley Dozen was held on 26th September, 2004 which was the day after the AFL Grand Final, "Coach" from Gold FM was our MC. This was a rudimentary event and we had 95 participants with our major sponsor being the Dingley Village Community Bendigo Bank and they have supported us every year. Without their support we would not have been able to maintain our low entry cost that makes the event possible for families.
The Army Reserves 22nd Construction Regiment supported us by providing tents for the massage and registration, and the RSEA Safety Shop provided us with road barriers to construct a finish chute to control the flow of finishing runners. We employed the services of a professional timing consultant to ensure that timing was carried out accurately as this was deemed to be the most important issue, closely followed by starting on time.
Our finish flag was lashed to 2 dead tree trunks and the double flipper timer was mounted on the back of a tray truck. Many of our sponsors from this year have remained with us for the 7 years of our existence. Aside from those listed above the sponsors are Allstaff Airconditioning, ARM Financial Architects, Carman's Muesli Bars, Century 21 Wilson Pride [Dingley Village], Cleanskips Bin Hire, McDonalds Braeside, Touch of Health and Step Into Life. Several other sponsors assisted for this year in particular and they were Bunnings South Oakleigh, Physical Pursuits, The Arena, Dingley International Hotel, Hallam Truck Hire, HIGH5 Sports Nutrition, Lobster Cave, Melbourne Paper Converting, LaMana Bananas and South East Water.
We again held the Dingley Dozen on the Sunday following the AFL Grand Final – the 25th September and our participants increased to 136 with Les Breen from Chelsea Lions as MC. We again had the services of the Army and their PR Bus and at the finish line we constructed two towers from scaffolding and connected them to hang the timer over the track. Puma Australia, Rebel Sports Safeway Dingley and Subway Dingley joined us as sponsors. All runners and marshals appreciated the free BBQ that followed the run.
We have determined that the day after the AFL Grand Final – in this case Sunday, 1st October – will always be a fine day. 205 participants took part this year and David Jones from Waverley Lions was our MC. The finish gantry took on a professional look this year as it was designed by engineer Eldon Smith and constructed by Genaro Sposato who both donated their services and for this we say Thank You! New sponsors on board this year were DJ Projects, Redwood Gardens Chinese Restaurant, R4YL and the Victorian College of Health who took over the massage duties.
Sunday 30th September [the day after the AFL Grand Final] was a brilliant day weather-wise but only 130 runners registered. We have considered the drop off and come to no satisfactory answer for the reduction in numbers. Our MC for this year was David Oakley and Touch of Health returned as Masseurs.
We altered the day – to the Sunday prior to the AFL Grand Final, on 21st September and we had 248 participants involved. The track was altered this year at the last moment for reasons unknown and this created unnecessary issues but in spite of this it was a very successful day, with David Oakley as MC again. Once again brilliant sunshine was the order of the day and new sponsors on board were Army Monash University Regiment, Clayton Fresh Fruit Mart, Dingley Village Adventure Golf, Kingston Spinal & Osteopathic Clinic [massage] and Raleigh Paper.
It was decided to change our run date to 2 weeks prior to the Melbourne Marathon, [on 20th September] to give runners a warm-up for the Marathon. This happened to coincide with the week before the Grand Final and we have maintained this date ever since. This year we reduced the number of Age Categories in line with other runs to speed up the processing of finish results. 271 participants were involved this year and our MC was again David Oakley. New Sponsors involved were Coffee Club Keysborough, Contours Ladies Gym, Khe Sanh Restaurant, Suds Hand Carwash, Flakey Jakes, Sub-Way Dingley and Spring Park Golf Club.
Sunday 19th September was the date this year [again the week before the AFL Grand Final] and we had 320 registered participants. Our sunny days ended with an overcast, freezing day but it didn't rain so the runners didn't mind the change. This year we altered U12 to U13 to resolve the misunderstanding of the age category and we actually ran out of BBQ sausages, water and fruit – which we have determined will just not happen again. To acknowledge our sponsors again – Aston.Ryan.Malcolm, Century 21 Wilson Pride [Dingley Village], Cleanskips Bin Hire, Coffee Club Keysborough, Contours Ladies Gym, Dingley Village Community Bendigo Bank, Dingley Thai Restaurant, KheSanh Restaurant, Kingston Spinal & Osteopathic Clinic [massage], McDonald Braeside, Parks Victoria, Raleigh Paper Co., RSEA Safety Shop, Safeway Dingley, Step Into Life, R4YL, Step Into Life, Suds Hand Carwash and Subway Dingley.
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