Sunday 4 February 2024
Introducing the #GCRAMBLE !
 
 Gold Coast Rotary will stage the next Gold Coast Ramble on 4 February 2024 starting at the Stage in the Broadbeach Mall, Broadbeach.  It will be a 2 hour event commencing at 9am with teams exploring the Broadbeach Precinct.  Staged in partnership with The Broadbeach Collective, it will be part of the inaugural Broadbeach Beats and Eats with entertainment and food options from 11am to 5pm.
 
The Gold Coast Ramble for Charity is a unique and innovative team event that appeals to corporate, family and friendship teams. The Ramble is an event that aligns with the Gold Coast lifestyle, being an outdoor event open to all levels of fitness.  Primarily a fun community event but with an element of competition that enthuses and motivates teams to spend the entire allocated time finding as many checkpoints as possible. 
 
The Ramble can best be described as a car rally / treasure hunt on foot or public transport, with teams of costumed participants exploring the parks, malls and streets of the Gold Coast suburbs following clues to locate 30  checkpoints.
 
At each checkpoint, the team use the Gold Coast Ramble App to receive a challenge about the immediate area – this could relate to the heritage, the natural environment, street art or current infrastructure.  What better way to discover and learn about the lesser-visited nooks and crannies of the City of Gold Coast?  
 
Gold Coast Rotary has now staged one 4-hour and five 2-hour Gold Coast Rambles, exploring Southport, Surfers Paradise, Main Beach, the cultural precinct around HOTA and Chevron Island and last year the Gold Coast regional Botanic Gardens  
 
Two teams have dominated these events, coming either 1st or 2nd each year.  These teams besides showing excellent rambling strategy to find checkpoints and complete challenges, have also consistently started with maximum bonus points by raising $1000 for the nominated charity.
 
Corporate Challenge
Both teams have registered and have started fundraising.  They challenge businesses and Rotary Clubs to match their fundraising and try to beat them this year at Broadbeach.  
 
This corporate challenge will be limited to 20 teams with the goal of raising $20,000 to assist survivors of domestic violence transition back to normal life.
 
Registrations open now for Gold Coast Ramble 2024
When:            4 February 2024 from 9am to 11am
Where:            Broadbeach Mall
Who:               20 teams of 4 members 
How much:      $50 registration fee for team
 
 
Additional Incentive
Our Media Partner and Sponsor 94.1FM have generously offered $5,000 in radio advertising to be distributed as follows:
  • $500 for teams that raise $1,000 for 'Friends with Dignity'
  • An additional $500 if teams increase fundraising to $1,500
 
What better way to have some fun time with your work colleagues or club members, whilst raising funds for a worthy cause.  The earlier you register, the more time you will have maximise bonus points and qualify for the 94.1FM offer. 
Page Stories
 
Despite the cancellation of many other events, Gold Coast Ramble was still able to proceed as scheduled on Sunday 22 March 2020.  Due to CODIV-19 public health concerns, several teams did not compete and other teams lost some members but 13 teams collected their maps and had 2 hours fun completing the circuit.   Check out the photo gallery.
 
To allow the event to proceed the event was modified to remove all activities requiring teams to interact with volunteers, other teams or the public.  Once team captains had collected their map, the entire event was managed using the Goose Chase App.  Missions or challenges went live at 10am and were listed on the App for teams to plan their routes.  The challenges were in one of three formats:
  • Find a geographic location (confirmed by GPS)
  • Answer a question about a particular location (confirmed by correct answer)
  • Submit a photograph or video of the team at the required location.
During the event additional bonus challenges were sent out to the team that were not location based and tested the team’s observation and creativity.  Finally, to make the event ‘socially distant’, there was no congregation of teams to announce winners and draw random prizes.  This was done by email and announced on social media.  The App itself had maintained a leader board visible to all teams but adjusted by bonus and penalty points based on photographic submissions.
Looking back at previous Rambles we had volunteers manning every checkpoint and managing the logistics of setting these up was a major exercise.  In 2017 we had over 80 volunteers to run the event.  This year it could be run on the day with only one!  This is the power of technology and the functionality in a new App.
Almost $7,000 in prizes were made available by our generous sponsors:
  • Spicer Retreats
  • KDV Sport
  • Village Road Theme Parks
  • Lana Noir Photography
  • 94.1 FM Radio
  • ISR Training
  • Southport Yacht Club
  • HopOn Brewery Tours
  • Granddad Jacks Craft Distillery
We were able to balance the costs of running the event due to a generous donation from Kevin and Lindy Campbell so if you are looking for storage, please talk to Campbell’s Self Storage at Hope Island.
 
This year we used a registration site that provided an single easy-to-navigate registration and donation platform for participants.  Raisely.com was able to handle the seamless transfer and receipting of team donations directly to the nominated charity at minimum cost.
Total proceeds for the event was $6,644, which included $1,350 in registrations.  Several teams campaigned hard to maximise their pre-event bonus points:
  • Niopotamus $1,045 raised for Bravehearts
  • Good Karma $913raised for Baby Give Back
  • Hinterland Heroes $870 raised for The Salvos
Disappointingly the 9 recipient charities only generated one or two teams with over 80% of team registrations coming from Rotarians or their connections.  With an average team donation of $300, this was an opportunity missed with Rotary running a fun event for their network to support.
 
 
ANDRE'A AND HER BEST DRESSED TEAM FROM AAIC
Photo Albums from Previous Events
Sponsors
Hop on Brewery Tours
94.1FM