Recently the SRT Team had amazing success at the Marybourough SRT Event.

Both Alan Strange and Rach Mroczkowski (Co-Leaders for the last 5 years) agreed that this event was the best one yet...but why?

• Was it the class win for one of our Hybrid Open teams “Kowalski”, a truly courageous achievement after being off the track for an hour with a drive chain issue?
• Was it the great performance of our other two teams, “BumblebeeV” and “Married at first Trike”, both of whom had many first-time riders and raced wonderfully in their respective classes?
• Was it the fact that Damascus students rode a combined 2100 kms in 24 hours... that’s Ballarat to Uluru…?
• Was it the very low “incident” rate that would normally result from accidents that are sometimes “rider induced?” (Although the team love collecting the Return to Pits stickers, we only got 3!)
• Was it the great sense of community amongst the whole team, including staff, volunteers, and students?
• Was it the ongoing creative use of 40 or so large plastic buckets donated by “Phil” Fitzpatrick that were used for a myriad of purposes, including a makeshift rain gauge?
• Or was it the delicious and copious food that kept us going, thanks to our amazing volunteer catering mums?

While all the above was central to the whole weekend, it was the way the students stepped up and basically ran the show that was so unexpected and gratifying. From organising their own rider rosters, making decisions on the fly regarding race strategy, managing battery charging, setting up and running the pits and being up and ready to ride in the wee small hours in cold and wet conditions, we agreed that this was an outstanding display of developing maturity and leadership.

Before the event, captains were chosen and the level of responsibility they carried was increased. They were Ted Sculley, Matthew Hanrahan and Lucas Wells and they all performed admirably. At one point we agreed that we both felt a bit superfluous to the operation, such was the level of competency on display.

Damascus, you can be very proud of the SRT students. They have contributed thousands of cumulative hours beyond school time in the months leading up to Maryborough. Be it many Saturday workshops, or physical training sessions, or time spent preparing for the display and design assessments that are part of the Energy Breakthrough educational aspect, they turned up, worked hard, and had fun in the process. Spanning all year levels, they are living proof of the power of community and what can be achieved when we “work together co-operatively and creatively” (that’s a part of the SRT mission statement.)

If anyone has doubts about the young people of today, then spend some time with us at the SRT workshop or a weekend with the Damascus team at the Maryborough Energy Breakthrough... it will change your mind and give you hope for the future.

Special thanks to:

• Angela Carr and Adrian Newman for their support (Adrian made six trips up and back this year transporting students and equipment)
• Our team of dedicated volunteers: we could not operate without you all
• Our generous sponsors
• Student families for all the running around they have done
• The staff of Maryborough EBT whose passion for real world education drives them on (incidentally, the race director is former Damascus student, Michael McTigue)
• Damascus College for continuing to support this program
• All our SRT students