2022 Black Dog Ride to donate $10,000 to Busselton mental health service

The renowned Black Dog Ride is back for another year, this time pledging $10,000 to Busselton-based mental health service Lamp Inc. Bikies across the South West will team up for the ultimate convoy next Sunday. The Black Dog Ride aims to raise awareness about the impact of mental health, with about 200 motorcyclists expected to gather next weekend and ride from Busselton to Nannup and back. Lamp Inc area manager Jesse Malseed said the organisation was grateful to be recognised by Black Dog. “This funding is massive for us,” he said. “We rely a lot on government contracts and things like that, so that’s always an issue in ongoing State Government and national budgets, but to connect with a local organisation and event is huge in our ongoing ability in the community to provide support. “We’re working towards the same goal here; we provide the support and they’re raising the awareness of the underlying issue, which is mental health, and hopefully the people then flow on from Black Dog.” The Black Dog ride started in 2009 and this year more than 44 one-day rides will take place next weekend across the country. Lamp plans to visit Nannup Primary School ahead of the big day to get kids involved. Mr Malseed said planting the seed early was the key to prevention. “It’s all about the early intervention model,” he said. “It’s great to get into older adults and understand what mental health is and how to reach out, but to get into younger generations is probably even more so important in the future. “If we can then get that education early, and change the stigma then it makes the world a better place.” The Lamp team will follow along behind the convoy during the ride in their rainbow outreach bus. Black Dog Busselton coordinator John Lewin said while raising money was fantastic, the ultimate prize was raising awareness and helping those in need. “Just in the Black Dog community alone, we’ve raised $4m which we’ve donated to various charities here in WA,” he said. “We believe that all the donations that we collect for the ride should go to a Busselton charity and we’ve nominated Lamp for that. “But it’s not just about raising money; our principal call is to raise awareness, to get people to talk about it, to take away the stigma of mental health issues.” The ride will kick off at 9.30am on Sunday, March 20, from 15 Kershaw Street, Busselton. People can register at events.humanitix.com/busselton-wa-black-dog-ride-1-dayer-2022 and arrive anytime from 7am.