TEN cars rolled back into Portland on Monday afternoon, after a weekend of good memories driving all over the state to celebrate their efforts to raise $11,250 for Portland District Health’s South Ward.

It has been years of effort from the Portland and District Motoring Enthusiasts Club (PADMEC) to get their inaugural Cruise for Charity event off the ground, but organiser Michael Pratt said it was well worth the effort.

In 2016, Mr Pratt and fellow Portlanders PADMEC president Kevin Donavan and member Craig Simmonds took part in the Aussie Muscle Car Run, where car lovers each go out in the months leading up to the event, and through whatever means available, participating car lovers raise as much money as they can for a chosen charity.

The organising club puts on a weekend long convoy trip for the fundraising teams to take part in, raising more money again.

After some years taking part in this and a Victorian car event, the three decided that it would be a good idea for PADMEC to host something similar, and raise funds for something within the local community.

“We were all set to go in 2020, but like everything else that year, it didn’t happen,” Mr Pratt said.

COVID complications led to false starts for three years running, before finally, last Friday, October 20, they set off from Portland.

The four-day cruise stopping in Apollo Bay, Maryborough, and Nhill each night before returning to Portland, with plenty of pit stops in between.

“It was great, plenty of laughs and fairly casual,” said Mr Pratt.

“We covered around 250km – 320km per day, so we had plenty of time to stop and do things.”

That included ice-cream in Timboon, a hot rod museum in Castlemaine, and the national pin-ball museum in Nhill.

In the lead up to the drive, participants found sponsors, held open garden days, sold firewood, did volunteering, held raffles and collected recyclables to raise money.

“It’s been a long time coming to finally get going, but now that we’ve actually done it it’s rekindled our spirits a bit, so we’re looking at making it an annual event, and grow what we can raise,” Mr Pratt said.

“The hospital was a pretty easy choice to send the money, it’s going to the palliative care section which was their choice, people are really eager to donate when they know when it’s staying in the community.”

On return, the group presented a check for the funds to Portland District Health CEO Sam Sharp, who was very thankful for their efforts.