Next month, licensed Greyhound Racing SA handler/attendant, Aaron van der Kolk, 25, of Parafield Gardens, will take on the World’s Greatest Shave and help in his own small way to fund life-changing blood cancer support and research.
Aaron will undergo a head shave at Angle Park on Thursday, March 26. And Corey Wade, GRSA’s Senior Marketing Coordinator, said his department would be assisting with some promotion and support with race names and fundraising opportunities.
“Look, I’m really enjoying my involvement in greyhound racing,” Aaron said. “And any way I can put a positive spin on the sport then I’m all for it.
“Also, I’m assisting trainers Judi Hurley, Vadim Roz and Jason Dolan with their boxing and catching as well as helping out Jason at his Globe Derby kennels.”
He’s set his goal at $1000 for the World’s Greatest Shave. Currently he has raised $800 with Mount Gambier’s Tara Tipsters happy to make up the difference for Aaron.
The charity-driven Tara Tipsters is a twice-weekly tipping competition which first began in its current format back in 2021. Contestants make a small donation each meeting to the charity jar and attempt to pick the most winners on the day in a bid to gain bragging rights.
These days most of the competitions run for two months and carry the name of a local charity. At the conclusion of the series, representatives from the designated charity are invited out to Tara Raceway to attend a Sunday race meeting and receive a donation from the Tipsters.
Currently, the Mount Gambier Tara Tipsters charity is the Limestone Coast Prostate Cancer Support Group which will conclude at the end of the month.
All told, there have been approximately 24 Tara Tipsters competitions. And local charities to benefit include the Visually Impaired Club, Foodbank, Four Reasons Why and the Mount Gambier Cancer Support Group Inc.
Other beneficiaries include the Ryder-Cheshire Home Foundation, the Community Christmas Day Lunch, the Sunset Community Kitchen and the Mount Gambier Breast Cancer Awareness Group. Also receiving donations have been families with sick children requiring hospitalisation.
One of the driving forces behind the Mount Gambier Tara Tipsters has been Kevin “KD” Douglas who said the contributions over the years to local families and charities had been quite remarkable.
“They would have amounted to more than $25,000,” he said. “This is one initiative that has certainly come a fair way since the days when two or three of us used to sit out the front of the clubroom and try and outdo one another when it came to finding a winner.”