It was a cold morning with frost on the ground when runners in Bucky’s Beach Relay took to the road at 6am today between Cowell and Cleve.
The crew are running from Adelaide to Elliston in honour of shark attack victim Simon “Bucky” Baccanello.
The group of family and friends are raising money for a gym to be built in Elliston as a lasting memory of Bucky.
Once they arrive in the town tomorrow, the fundraising and celebration of Bucky’s life will continue at Elliston Community Sports Centre.
Elliston Area School principal and friend of Bucky Chad Fleming said six bands had donated their time to play at a “mini Bucky Fest” at the centre after football finished.
A raffle from the Bucky Fest held in Elliston in March will be drawn, and there will also be an auction to add to the fundraising tally.
The 38 runners are ahead of schedule today, having run halfway from Cowell to Cleve last night, before spending the night in Cowell.
They changed over relay runners at Pine Corner – between Cleve and Rudall just before 9am – well on their way to reaching Elliston tomorrow.
At 4pm today the relay was on track to swap runners between Lock and Mount Wedge.
However, a big influx of school students are expected to join the 38 relay runners to run the final 500m from the Elliston playground to the oval tomorrow.
The runners will arrive there between the end of the B grade football and the start of the A grade football game – roughly 2pm and 2.30pm.
Organiser Peter McDonald said they had been delighted with the response of people since they set out from Adelaide on Tuesday.
He said people had given them donations when they were stopped for lunch on different days; and at Jamestown a barbecue breakfast raised money.
“A kid at Melrose gave us a bit of money and ran with us,” Peter said.
“There has been a lot of community support on our way.”
The runners include Bucky’s friends and family, with Chad Fleming and his wife Tannille part of the support crew.
Chad said their son Ashton, 17, was taught by Bucky and is one of the runners.
“He was pretty keen to be in it,” Chad said.
