The four men - Dan Billing, Vaughan Wrenn, Adam Roe and Isaac Scott - started strong and just kept on going.
The four men - Dan Billing, Vaughan Wrenn, Adam Roe and Isaac Scott - started strong and just kept on going.
It was almost standing-room-only at a woolshed at Pukemiro Station over the weekend as members of the community went along to support a shearing fundraiser.
Dan Billing, along with three other farmers - Vaughan Wrenn, Adam Roe and Isaac Scott - decided to hold a fundraiser for charity Shear4U, shearing sheep over a total of 24 hours.
The four - plus a rotation of guest shearers which included some experienced shearers as well as cadets from Pukemiro Station on a fifth station - started off strong early on Saturday morning and just kept going.
Dan Billing with son Will on the fifth stand, hard at work.
Spokeswoman Maree Palmer said they had been expecting to shear around 85 sheep a run, but were exceeding that with well over 100 - for a total of 6654 ewe lambs and more than 30 bales of wool pressed.
She said they even ran out of sheep at one point, requiring the musterers to get more so they could keep going until the end.
The target had been $100,000, but thanks to more than $12,000 raised in an auction and other contributions, they reached that goal even without the proceeds from the sheep shorn.
Palmer said the four couldn’t have done it without the community support, which showed in the numbers of people turning up to cheer them on.
“Throughout the event, the crowd of spectators has been amazing. Even the number of night-time spectators was massive. People [were] turning up at all hours during the night to encourage the four shearers.
“The whole atmosphere was brilliant. with the crowd clapping and whistling at both the start and ending of each of the 12 runs.”
A number of others from the community turned up to help, including by providing food.
Moana Beveridge and Jane Heald were on-hand with plenty of tucker.
The men were raising money for three charities: the Breast Cancer Foundation, Hear4U and Rural Support. The total raised would be confirmed later this week.
Palmer said the mammoth effort from the boys “has been an inspiration to us all”.
“Their hard work and dedication over the last six months or so has definitely paid off.”
The tally board.
She said the event had only been so successful due to so many people taking the typical Kiwi attitude of digging deep; ‘let’s get in and do this’.
“[There was a] huge personal commitment from many people, but the greatest commitment, of course, [came] from Dan, Vaughan, Adam and Isaac.
“A perfect example [to show] that support and encouragement from people around you will help you come out the other side.”
She added that all three charities did a marvellous job of offering support and encouragement, but needed financial help to assist them in making it happen.
