WACRH Research Assistant Fiona Lucy demonstrating how to make a smoothie on the Fender Blender Bike.
The recent success of a grant funding application caused quite a whirl at the WA Centre for Rural Health (WACRH). The Mount Magnet team are in receipt of a Fender Blender Smoothie Bike.
Early this year WACRH applied for funding through the Shire of Mount Magnet’s Ramelius Resources Gold Community Benefit Fund to co-purchase a blender bike.
This new fund has generously been made available by local gold mining company Ramelius Resources to the Mount Magnet local community for the next three years.
In this first round of grant applications, eight community groups put in for the funding and only three were successful.
Ellen Paynter, a Dietetics postgraduate student from Curtin University, who was undertaking a WACRH vacation scholarship in February 2016, identified the potential for the bike to be used in community programs. She helped co-write the funding application with other WACRH staff.
Letters of support for the application came from Mount Magnet Bidi Bidi Early Childhood Centre Coordinator Bev Basham and Elizabeth Tuckey the Principal of the Mount Magnet District High School.
WACRH’s Research Assistant Fiona Lucey, who is based in Mount Magnet, worked closely with Ms Paynter on submitting the application.
Ms Lucey said the success of the application is a great example of how health students hosted by WACRH help to add value to rural and remote communities.
The Shire of Mount Magnet approved the grant application which will cover half the cost of the bike, the other half of the costs being co-funded by WACRH.
The stationary bike is designed to be used by adults and kids harnessing peddle power to make delicious smoothies. It is the perfect way to promote healthy eating and physical activity in a fun and interactive way.
WACRH provide health and nutrition services within the Mount Magnet community and will use the bike in Mount Magnet schools and at community events.