Pair of sporting groups win $55k boost
Grant Money
Two of the region's better-known clubs are getting ready to spend some welcome cash.
Port Douglas Surf Life Saving Club and the Douglas Shire Motor Sports Association are among those who successfully applied for money in the latest round of the State Government's Gambling Community Benefit Fund grants.
More than $60m is earmarked for not-for-profit organisations each year and the money is dispensed through the state's Justice Department.
Surf Life Saving Club secretary Ingrid van Opzeeland said the much-needed about $35,000 grant would be spent to help the club install a solar system.
With one of the club's buildings already fitted with solar panels, the cash would allow an expanded use of solar energy.
Ms van Opzeeland is a well-known face around the club.
"I started volunteering here when my son was just eight, and now he's a doctor on the Gold Coast," she said.
"He's still involved in surf life saving down there, and I'm still here working alongside the rest of (our) team."
Motor sports association president Bob Err said there was a measure of relief in the $21,000 it received, as it would help it to add an on-site toilet.
Mr Err believed it would help what is already a family-oriented group to grow.
"At the moment, the ladies and kids have to walk to the Pony Club (for toilet facilities). In Far North Queensland you get snakes, wild horses and pigs in the grass," Mr Err said.
Vice president Shane North said once the toilet was installed it would make the club even more family-friendly than it currently is.