New travel photography contest launched

Calling all shutterbugs. A new travel photography contest has been launched in the Northern Rivers region. Focusing on people and places the competition is being held as part of my efforts to raise money for the War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge.

The theme, as stated, is People & Places. You can interpret this theme anyway you like. You need not have people in your photograph, but if you do they need to speak to the location and add depth to the image.

The competition is open to all residents in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales with three categories available for entries: Primary (up to 11 years), Secondary (12-17 years), and Open (18 years and over).

Entry cost is $5 per individual entry. You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry incurs the fee and must be made separately.

Photographs must be submitted in print form. Each photograph should be mounted on black mount board and must not exceed 30cm x 40cm in size (including mount board). No entries will be returned, so make sure you keep a copy of your photographs.

Prizes currently up for grabs include $350 worth of cash prizes offered by the Bangalow Chamber of Commerce, Lonely Planet guidebooks and year subscriptions to some of Australia's best travel magazines including Australian Traveller, Get Lost! and Vacations & Travel. More prizes to be announced soon.

Entries clearly marked with your Name, Age, Address and Telephone Number, should be sent to the attention of Kim Wildman, P.O. Box 611, Bangalow NSW 2479 (or leave at the Bangalow Post Office). Entries can also be dropped off at the A&I Hall between 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday 24 March.

The contest will then culminate in a fundraising exhibition/auction at the A&I Hall in Bangalow on Thursday 25 March where the winners will be announced. Just some of the fantastic auction items to be bid on include: $2000 worth of IT services offered by Magedata, two nights' accommodation at Mantra on Salt Beach at Kingscliff, a weekend for two at Urban Hotel Group in Spring Hill Brisbane and complimentary walking tour of Melbourne for four adults with Melbourne by Foot and much, much more. You can see the full list here.

You don't have to be a pro nor do you need to have travelled the world to enter this contest. You just have to have a keen eye and a great travelling spirit. So get snapping!

Cambodia Cycle Challenge: Sponsor roll call

It never fails to surprise me just how generous people can be. I've not long started fundraising for my War Child Cambodia Cycle Challenge and I’ve already been flooded with bighearted donations of money, gifts and prizes from friends, family, businesses (big and small) and people I don't even know!

As part of my fundraising efforts I will be holding two major fundraising events: a travel photography competition to be held where I live on the Far North Coast of New South Wales which will culminate in an exhibition and silent auction at the A&I Hall in Bangalow; and, a Charity Movie Night to be held in my hometown Toowoomba. Details for both events will be announced shortly. In the meantime, I thought I'd start a sponsor roll call to highlight the people and businesses that have been willing to dig deep and make my challenge a reality. They are:

TRAVEL COMPETION/EXHIBITION:
Prize donors:
Australian Traveller have kicked in with one year's subscription to the magazine.

Bangalow Chamber of Commerce has kindly donated $350 worth of cash prizes.

Get Lost! have also offered a one year subscription to their magazine.



Lonely Planet has kindly offered a few guidebooks as runner up prizes.

Vacations & Travel have donated two one year subscriptions to their quarterly magazine.



Auction/lucky door prize donators:
Rosemarie Toynbee, a consultant for Arbonne International, has offered $133 of Arbonne Body Care products.

Bangalow Chamber of Commerce has donated two 3-day passes to the Bangalow Music Festival and 6 tickets to Thursday night concerts in Bangalow.

Eight Hotels Australia has pitched in with 1 night's accommodation at one of their botique hotels located in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane, valued at $420 depending on the hotel.

Kym Kranen from H.I.P.S (M: 0424 223 754), has offered 5 personal training vouchers. Each voucher includes: 1 x 1/2hr consultation, 2 x 1/2hr one-on-one personal training sessions and 1 x 1hr success coaching session.


Magedata in the Northern Rivers region of NSW has kicked in with $2000 worth of IT services. This equates to two full days of business IT work or a basic CMS driven website with scope for one or two add-ons (shopping cart, blog etc).

Melbourne by Foot has offered a complimentary walking tour of Melbourne for four adults valued at $100. Departing from Federation Square, Melbourne By Foot is the esstenital walking tour of Australia's cultural capital.

Mantra Group have pitched in with two night's accommodation at Mantra on Salt Beach in a one bedroom ocean suite including breakfast daily.

Urban Hotel Group have offered a weekend for two at Urban Spring Hill Hotel in Brisbane. The kind offer was made possible by Sweaty Betty PR.

YHA Australia have donated one year membership to YHA plus vouchers for 10 night's multi-share accommodation valid at any of the more than 100 YHA hostels around Australia.



MOVIE NIGHT
Raffle/lucky door prize donators:
Discount Drug Stores Highfields have offered a $30 foot & bath pamper pack.

Harvey Norman Toowoomba have pitched in with a $300 Jamie Oliver saucepan set and a $50 Omega digital kitchen scale.

Miscellaneous thank yous
I also owe a very big heart-felt thank you to the following people:

My sister Kerri Lange and her husband Craig for generously donating $100 to cause as well as supplying me with some great new cycling threads for the trip (also to Craig for training with me). To Daini and Stephen Ware for loaning me a bike to train on and to my sister-in-law Nadine Wildman for organising the prizes for the Toowoomba movie night.

And, well, to all my family and friends in general for supporting me in yet another wild adventure!