Please not that International Helmet Awareness Day is to be held on June 22nd 2013
It’s great when an idea for a good cause turns into reality – and even better if we can help it happen.
Earlier this year we ran an article which we felt important about injured rider Courtney King-Dye and the riders4helmets campaign which was started in the USA to help support Courtney. This campaign has now spread and has its very own Australian ambassador – Carmen ter Rehe
Carmen contacted An Eventful Life after reading the article asking if we knew who to contact at riders4helmets in the USA; we had previously been in touch with Lyndsey White, co-founder of the movement to promote the wearing of helmets to all riders, and so we suggested that Carmen chatted to her about what could be done in Australia.
Good girl Carmen - hat on, even on the ground!
As they say, you can’t keep a good woman down and Carmen was officially appointed as the Australian Riders4Hemets representative in early May. Carmen has the perfect background for the role; she currently works within the construction industry managing areas of health, safety and the environment and is a keen rider herself as well as the owner of up and coming eventing horse CT Aurenda ridden by Shaun Dillon.
We know that Carmen is passionate about this role and what can be done to promote safer riding in Australia and congratulate her! We’re sure we’ll be getting lots of valuable information from her in the future to provide to you. The first important piece of news is that there will soon be an announcement regarding the date for this year’s International Helmet Awareness Day
Carmen is not the only one working hard behind the scenes of the Australian arm of riders4helmets. Amazing support and backing has come in the form of Australian riders Natalie Blundell, Megan Jones, Shaun Dillon, Sharon Jarvis and junior event rider Alice Hirst.
Megan Jones doing 'a Charlotte Dujardin' in tails with crash hat
Back in 2011 riders4helmets received assistance from 10 helmet manufacturers and over 500 retailers in the USA, Canada and the UK however only one out of 500 was represented by Australia, Equino Performance Apparel and Tack. This year with an all star line up and a increase in interest riders4helmets hope that the number of manufacturers, retailers and others to participate in the up and coming International Helmet Awareness Day will increase.
‘With the positive communication I’ve had, it would be nice to see a combination of at least 20 manufacturers and retailers participate covering all states of Australia, if we get more participation then wonderful but I think working together we could achieve a nice figure like 20.
I also aware of some clubs who wish to use International Helmet Awareness Day as an education process and hold a riders4helmets safety day which is an added bonus, I can’t wait to see some of the photos from those events’ says Carmen.
If you would like to be involved with the International Helmet Awareness Day in Australia or are just interested in finding out more about riding safety, you can visit riders4helmets.com , follow them on facebook or on Twitter http://twitter.com/
riders4helmets. In Australia you can contact Carmen directly by email
While they’re coming up with a date, we’ll put our thinking hats on and come up with a fun way to celebrate the day – we’ll keep you posted
You might also be interested in reading our recent article about checking your helmet regularly
