This year marks the 10th anniversary of a Healesville-based charity.
Good Deed Garage, founded by Healesville resident Cliff Overton, is a charity which raises funds to support other charities through rebuilding old motorcycles.
Mr Overton said he founded the charity in 2015.
“Basically, a couple of other friends and I find an old, broken-down motorcycle, find the parts, clean it all up, put it back together, maybe customise it, raffle it off, and then the money from the raffle tickets goes to a charity,” he said.
Good Deed Garage has sold three bikes that the members rebuilt, raising close to $30,000 to donate proceeds to different charities over the past 10 years.
“The first charity in 2015 was Beyond Blue. The second charity after that was Make A Wish Foundation because the guy who gave us the bike (asked us to put the money into Make A Wish),” the founder said.
“And the last one was two charities, one called Holy Fools that supports the homeless locally and a similar group called Junction Support Services up in Albury, because a good friend of mine in Albury did a lot of work on the bike, so we shared it around.”
Mr Overton has been volunteering as a firefighter at the Healesville CFA.
Unfortunately, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after he’d attended the Black Saturday bushfires as a firefighter.
Rather than being frustrated by the trauma, the firefighter tried to find a way to support people who were in need like him, which sparked a new chapter of his life with Good Deed Garage.
The charity founder said tinkering on motorcycles is good therapy for his PTSD.
“I was not working because I had some mental health problems after the Black Saturday bushfires,” he said.
“So in 2015, it caught up with me, so I stopped work, and I was working on my own motorcycles. And A friend on Facebook put up a post saying, ‘Here’s a free motorcycle for anyone that wants to do something with it.’
“(When I saw that post), I thought I could grab that while I’m not working, and clean it up, maybe sell it and put the money into Beyond Blue. I chose Beyond Blue because they were doing a lot of work, researching mental health and emergency service workers.”
Good Deed Garage needs community support to continue the positive impacts.
“Any support in the way of donations of money or skills is appreciated,” Mr Overton said.
“I just put an order in America for a small box of spare parts to come over here, that’s $900.
“I need to find a painter to paint the frame, to paint the tank … I need a website for this charity. If anyone wants to build a website, that will help. People can help in many ways.
“You could really help just by liking and following the Good Deed Garage Facebook page. The more followers we get, the more sponsors and donors we can attract.”
A radio announcer at a Melbourne radio station also agreed to join Good Deed Garage as an ambassador for promotion.
The name of the ambassador will be unveiled once all the formal work is finalised.
Anyone wishing to support this charity can contact Mr Overton through the Good Deed Garage Facebook page, at facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574641163497
The Good Deed Garage crew are currently rebuilding a Honda CB400F Cafe Racer for the next raffle.
You can follow the progress of the current project and see the first three builds on the Facebook page.
