© Donnybrook Balingup Chamber of Commerce Inc. 2014

The Event

Well done to Gary McCorkell, chamber member and owner of The Lazy G Farm, for bringing True Grit to Newlands. Donnybrook Balingup Chamber of Commerce worked closely with the True Grit event organisers and Sam Dixon at the Donnybrook Shire to bring True Grit to WA. Four of our members also sponsored the event with advertising, Blackwood Tanks, Bendigo Bank and GJ Freight sponsoring obstacles and Smallwater Estate sponsoring the grand finish line. The Chamber achieved the following: • Worked with the Donnybrook Shire to facilitate sponsorship • Sponsored the event directly from Chamber funds • Promoted local businesses to supply services to the event • Worked with other member businesses to sponsor obstacles with advertising • Worked with the Donnybrook & Balingup Tourism offices to provide a presence on site during the event The Chamber is pleased to be able to confirm that local businesses were contracted by True Grit including Covert Signs and a large contract to Hastie Waste for the event which is all about engaging the local area. In addition a number of accommodation businesses have been booked out including Donnybrook Motel and The Apple Tree Inn who also managed to serve over 140 meals on Saturday evening alone. Smallwater Estate was also flat out. A number of on-site vendors also utilised local businesses including Trade Hire, Donnybrook Farm Service and Donnybrook Hardware. In addition True Grit also made donations to the Donnybrook High School for volunteers for the event and of course a percentage of the overall ticket sales goes to the very worthy Commando Welfare Trust and Legacy which support our injured armed forces. The event was a great success with 3000 participants. The cream of the crop started first at 9am on the dot and completed the 10km, 31 obstacle course in an impressive 1 hour 8 minutes for the 3 fastest males and 1 hour 15 minutes for the fastest female. The majority of the rest had a great time and enjoyed the achievement and satisfaction of completing the hardest obstacle course WA has to offer. Valuable lessons were learnt from this inaugural event, in particular, future events will be planned to avoid the long weekend so that more accommodation will be available for the growing number of participants. This also has to be a time for Donnybrook stores to consider being open all weekend as there were many people milling around the town with few places open to shop or eat. Meanwhile Balingup was buzzing with the General Store having one of its busiest weekends and actually selling out of fuel! The Chamber would like to thank the whole True Grit team in particular Todd, Adam, Matt & Joe. If you’d like to take part in next year’s event then go to the True Grit Website to find more information and to enrol.