Every year during National Volunteer Week, Bicycle Network inducts volunteers to our honour board and awards new life memberships.
It's one of our favourite moments of the year and usually we celebrate with a party in our offices, however because of coronavirus restrictions we have to do it differently in 2020.
Below are are this year's inductees – if you've been on a Bicycle Network event you will probably recognise some of the friendly faces. We've also got a bit information about how each person has helped us.
Congratulations to all of this 2020's honour board inductees and new life members and huge thank you from everyone at Bicycle Network to the wonderful group of volunteers who dedicate their time to help people ride bikes.
New life members
Life Membership is awarded to volunteers who have been with Bicycle Network for more than 10 years and donated at least 50 hours of time on events in each of those years.
Edward Leihitu
For more than ten years now, Edward has been a highly respected member of our Great Vic Bike Ride and United Energy Around the Bay event teams.
It’s clear that he has a passion for ensuring our riders are kept safe and well supported out on the road, having joined our riding marshal team on the Great Vic and the WARBY team at United Energy Around the Bay each year.
Geoffrey Taig
Geoff is one of the longest serving members of our riding marshal team on the Great Vic Bike Ride, having joined us on every event since 2010 – an incredible achievement!
During this time, he also joined us at United Energy Around the Bay as well as three Great Escapade events where he travelled with us to Western Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania to volunteer.
Jim and Julie Rees
Jim and Julie are two of our most loyal volunteers at United Energy Around the Bay, where for many years now they have taken on the role as ferry attendants down at our rest stop in Queenscliff.
In 2019, they also joined us on the Great Vic Bike Ride where Jim joined the volunteer operations team and Julie helped keep the riders fed as a part of the lunch team.
Sandra Portlock
For many years now Sandra has been one of our most active event volunteers – in the past 10 years alone, she’s joined our events team on over 20 occasions!
A true all-rounder, Sandra has helped in a variety of roles and across many of our events, including the Great Vic, United Energy Around the Bay, Peaks Challenge Falls Creek, Great Escapade New Zealand, Great Escapade Tasmania and Gravel Grit You Yangs.
Richard and Ruth Langman
Richard and Ruth have been stalwart organisers of Bicycle Network Tasmania’s Bike Week event, the Kingsborough Treasure Hunt, for more than 10 years.
In the months leading up to the event each year, they devote many hours to organising all aspects of the event from securing permission to use land to promoting the events to local schools and the media.
Vivienne Zoppolato
Vivienne is one of the most highly valued members of our Great Vic community, where for many years she has been a part of the Eco team.
The Eco team are responsible for ensuring the campsites we visit are left in an even better condition than when we arrived – it’s an incredibly important role and its one she takes great pride in! She took over as the team leader in 2019.
Honour board inductees
Honour Board status is awarded to those who have served on the Bicycle Network board for at least five years, or volunteered in another capacity for seven years, donating at least 50 hours of time on events.
Volunteers who champion specific programs or events who are celebrating five, 10 or 20 years of involvement are also recognised.
Alasdair Sinclair
Alasdair is a key member of our Eco team on the Great Vic, which he has been part of since he first joined our volunteer team in 2012.
Frank Coppens
Frank is the team leader of our amazing SAG team on the Great Vic. He’s also a regular at many of our other events including Peaks Challenge and United Energy Around the Bay.
Margaret Sewell
Travelling all the way from Western Australia to join us each year, Margaret is part of the lunch team at the Great Vic Bike Ride.
Peter Dodd
Pete has given many hours of service to Bicycle Network’s events over the years and he is a key member of our workshop team in Sunshine.
Stewart Livingston
A key member of our SAG team and one of our event regulars – there hasn’t been too many events he’s missed, having joined us on 20 occasions since 2013.
Tim Austin
Tim has been a member of our campsite team on the Great Vic for the past seven years. In 2018 he stepped up to take on the role of team leader.
Vivek Prabhakar
Vivek first joined our team on Around the Bay in 2011. Since then he has joined us on many occasions across multiple roles, most recently in Event Control on the Great Vic in 2019.
Click here to see Bicycle Network's volunteer honour board and life members.
Bicycle Network is celebrating National Volunteer Week from 18 to 24 May 2020. To keep track of all National Volunteer Week celebrations you can follow us on social media and use the tag #NVW2020.