Top three reads in this week’s Manjimup-Bridgetown Times

In this week’s Manjimup-Bridgetown Times a grieving Australian family is on a mission to raise money for building the State’s first children’s hospice, the Donnybrook Ladies Hockey Club has been given its marching orders as the council replaces its clubhouse with a BMX track and a Goldfields man has taken an historical adventure by horse-drawn carriage to celebrate his 80th birthday. On a mission to help kids Ryan and Karen Fowler, founders of Rio’s Legacy, are running and riding across the State to raise more than $100,000 for a children’s hospice. The pair started the not-for-profit after their son Rio died from an unknown condition in 2018 and have since dedicated themselves to helping families who suffered like they did by raising money for the first end-of-life care unit for children. As he runs and cycles from Geraldton to Albany through Margaret River and back to Perth, Mr Fowler is meeting members of local governments, health officials and families who have terminally ill children to gather support for the cause. Hockey club gets the boot Donnybrook Ladies Hockey Club has been given its marching orders as the council moves forward with a BMX track before full funding has been secured for the hockey players’ replacement clubhouse. At a special council meeting on Monday night, Donnybrook-Balingup Shire councillors unanimously agreed upon a tender for the $467,000 pump track development at VC Mitchell Park. The hockey club has been offered a new pitch and clubrooms once the council completes a $15 million refurbishment project. However, only $9 million has been secured so far in funding for the upgrade project, leaving clubs such as the Donnybrook Ladies Hockey Club unsure of their future. Blazing historic trail A Goldfields man has celebrated his 80th birthday by travelling more than 300km on a historical Lower South West stock route by horse-drawn carriage last week. James Oversby, better known as Jim, has completed multiple trails around the country by carriage but chose the Southern Forests and Valleys to celebrate his latest milestone with a group of friends from the West Australian Carriage Driving Society. The group of 14, along with a support crew of drivers, spent seven days travelling the Warren-Blackwood Stock Route, a 320km bridle trail based on the old stock droving routes of the original farming families of the South West.