Marathon effort for man and mower

Richard Holt set himself the ambitious goal of towing a ride-on mower for 42.2km at the weekend in the bid to raise $50,000 for the Bolting Ahead charity.

The founder of Bolting Ahead started his Marathon Mow Tow journey from the Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival site on Saturday, August 23, about 8.30am.

He made his triumphant return to the site, crossing the finish line about 4pm on Sunday, August 24.

“It was a massive effort. I heard as we crossed the finish line that we actually made our $50,000, which is enormous and really emotional,” Richard told Moreton Daily soon after completing the challenge.

Backyard Bolters provides training and employment opportunities for young people living with disability, via its lawn mowing social enterprise called Backyard Bolters.

“I’m so glad that it came to that ($50,000) and we’re able to get more stuff for our guys and open our own academy so we can train more people to be part of the Backyard Bolters,” Richard said.

“It’s just amazing. I’m very happy to be finished and very happy with the result.

“The marathon was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but I trained really well for it and managed to smash through the hills. The flats were the thing that just burned your hammies. I learnt that.”

Bolting Ahead was the charity partner of the Moreton Bay Food + Wine Festival and Moreton Daily jumped on board as a gold sponsor.

“What the team have done for us to enable us to raise this money here, is just amazing. It was just a random idea we took to them and with open arms they came in,” Richard said.

About Bolting Ahead

At present, six young people have developed mowing and gardening skills and are paid for their work as permanent part-time employees of the social enterprise called Backyard Bolters.

The work has given them income, purpose and direction for the future, as well as invaluable social connection.

Richard and his team want to create a Backyard Bolters Academy, giving two more crews of six people the chance to get involved as well as those keen to develop administrative skills in the office.

To find out more, visit the boltingahead.com website.