The sounds of thundering engines will be heard in Orange’s streets on Saturday when up to 30 motorbike riders participate in the Three Dogs Charity Poker Run in support of the St Vincent de Paul food van.
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Last year’s inaugural event raised $1500 for the charity, which was more than enough encouragement for organiser Greg Lytton to plan a second edition.
“It was a privilege to hand that over to Vinnies who are the ones out in the community assisting those who need a bit of a hand up.”
The Poker Run will start at the Lucknow Goldfields Tavern at 10am on Saturday, stopping at five locations across the Orange region before concluding the journey at Neville.
The concept is that participants draw one card from a standard playing deck at each stop and hope to make the best five-card poker hand by the time they reach the last location.
For almost 10 years the food van’s volunteers have met at Kenna Hall to make the sandwiches and prepare food and drink packages to be distributed via the van to those in need.
In the last six months of 2017 1561 people accessed the service, with the help of 312 volunteers.
Lukas Rajnoch from St Vincent de Paul said “the cost of living these days” made the charity service a vital one.
“Increased utility bills, rising food costs and living expenses in general does put extra pressure on household incomes,” Mr Rajnoch said.
“I can’t thank Greg enough for organising the charity poker run and for choosing to support the Vinnies food van.”
The name ‘Three Dogs’ originated from an outback system for rating the coldness of a night as being one, two or three dogs, with three being the chilliest.
Mr Lytton said the abundance of three dogs nights during Orange’s harsh winter months make life especially tough on the city’s homeless.