Pukemiro Woolshed just erupted with clapping, whistling, and yelling, right at 3pm, Sunday, January 22. What an atmosphere and the four farmers-cum-shearers had done it. Worn out but elated they turned their machines off. Starting at 7am on Saturday, January 21 and finishing 3pm on Sunday, January 22 at Pukemiro Station, Otope Road, Dannevirke, these four local Tararua farmers - Vaughan Wrenn, Adam Roe, Isaac Scott, and Dan Billing - shore 6,654 ewe lambs over a total of 24 hours all in the name of charity.
Next, it was announced that with the proceeds from the sheep shorn still to come, they had already raised the $100,000 they were aiming for. Dan believes the figure could be as high as $135,000.
The crowd early on Sunday afternoon.
The final figure raised for the three charities, Breast Cancer Foundation, Rural Support Trust, and Hear4U, will be known in the next few days.
The lunchtime auction conducted by Craig Boyden from out on the balcony of the shed as the crowd was too big to fit inside alone had just raised $15,205.00.
However, the four shearers couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support. It has been a huge extended community effort and too large to name everyone. So many people contributed in some way or another.
The cooks, Jane Heald and Moana Beverage worked from Jane’s kitchen to keep the shearers fuelled up for 24 hours. The family and friend support to the individual shearers has been invaluable and the tallies of lambs shorn were amazing. They had been hoping to shear about 85 a run but in fact, they well exceeded that.
To add to this the shearers were expected to drop their tallies at some stage but that never happened. In fact, the musterers had to go and get more lambs in and give them a quick crutch out the back to be able to keep the boys shearing till 3pm.
A total of 6,654 ewe lambs were shorn, producing more than 30 bales of wool pressed.
It was great to be able to have guest shearers on stand 5. These people ranged from very experienced shearers like World record holder Rueban Alabaster, local legend Rod Sutton and Amy Silcock (who was attempting her own world record last Friday) to young teenage shearers, including the Pukemiro Station cadets doing a run during the night.
Throughout the event, the crowd of spectators has been amazing. Even the number of nighttime spectators was massive. People turned up at all hours during the night to encourage the four shearers on. The whole atmosphere was brilliant with the crowd clapping and whistling at both the start and end of each of the 12 runs.
Well-known identities Cath and Mark Redward were out on Saturday afternoon and said the vibe was great. Ninety-year-old Mark went out again at 4am on Sunday morning and said there were 40-50 in the crowd and the shearers were still doing a wonderful job of shearing the ewe lambs. In the final run of the afternoon they were still averaging a lamb every 30-36 seconds.
Even the music was good. What great encouragement for Vaughan Wrenn, Isaac Scott, Adam Roe, and Daniel Billing. It must have helped to pump them up both mentally and physically.
No doubt many times during the event, especially during that final run, the men would have been comparing their pain and stress to the pain and stress many people, who need the help of the chosen charities they were raising funds for, go through.
His mammoth effort from the boys has been an inspiration to us all. Their hard work and dedication over the last six months or so have definitely paid off.
This whole event, although initiated by Dan Billing, has only been so successful due to so many people taking the typical NZ Kiwi attitude of digging deep and “let’s get in and do this”.
Dan Billing was feeling better than he expected on Monday after the weekend, putting it down to the intense training they did and some really good advice from Shane Bird- a mindset coach from Australia - just days before the weekend.
He said he was humbled by the support from the community even in the middle of the night, which blew him away. He said words cannot express adequately how blown away he was by the people who came out and cheered them on.
Huge personal commitments from many people but the greatest commitment of course comes from Dan, Vaughan, Adam, and Isaac. This a perfect example of showing that support and encouragement from people around you will help you come out the other side.
