THE challenge was issued and Bathurst Panthers Junior Rugby League Club were only too happy to accept.
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As the sun set on Thursday, and temperatures dipped to a chilly 9.2 degrees, the club’s coaches, parents and volunteers lined up for a freezing good cause.
Panthers were the first junior rugby league club to accept Eglinton Eels’ ice bucket challenge.
The challenge sees people line up to get drenched in a big bucket of iced water – all captured on film.
There are definitely warmer ways to spend your winter evenings according to club president Brett Bennett, but he said it was worth it for a good cause.
“We were challenged by Shane Earsman [from Eglinton Eels],” he said.
On Thursday, 13 of the club’s coaches, parents and volunteers gave up their warmth to be drenched in icy cold water – a challenge that helped the club raise $2006.
Panthers, like the Eglinton Eels, will donate the funds raised to a talented 15-year-old Forster junior rugby league player, Curtis Landers, who broke two vertebrae in his neck during a match in May.
Since then Curtis has remained in Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital and following surgery has “very, very small amount of
movement and feeling in different places” according to the Port Macquarie News.
The challenge involved teams from the club’s under 6s through to the under 12s, with hundreds of spectators on hand at Carrington Park to watch.
“The under 12s exceeded expectations and they raised in excess of $600 on their own,” Mr Bennett said.
“Some of the coaches did it and some got others to do it on their behalf,” he said.
Due to a medical condition Mr Bennett didn’t volunteer for the ice challenge, but he didn’t miss out on fundraising.
“Someone offered me $100 if I’d let kids smash a dozen eggs on my head (which he agreed to) ... it might have been better to have the ice,” he said.
Mr Bennett said he was happy they smashed the Eels’ $600 fundraising efforts, though he admitted Panthers was a bigger club.
“We were happy to get what we could get ... it’s good for club spirit,” he said.
Now that Panthers have answered the challenge, Mr Bennett has nominated the St Pat’s Junior Rugby League Club to take part and see if they can match or better the Panthers’ fundraising efforts.