When Ken Richardson and partner Helen Hewertson set off on their long dreamed of Big Lap, they had little else on their ‘to do list’ besides sunsets, sightseeing and Happy Hours.
Now, however, almost a year later, they are very much grey nomads on a mission. Their trip began with a flight from their home in Christchurch, New Zealand, to the Gold Coast from where they picked up the Jeep Laredo Diesel and 7.3-metre Jayco Stirling they had bought on the internet.
However, their adventure took its first ‘not in the brochure’ twist when their towing inexperience led to their van being damaged in Coonabarabran in New South Wales, and they had to wait months for repairs to be carried out. Soon after they got back on the road, floods left them stranded in Dubbo, and they began to realise that there ‘had to be more to the Big Lap than this’.
Fate dictated they didn’t have to wait long to find out what that something was.
“While we were stuck in Dubbo and looking at YouTube clips to amuse ourselves as best we could, we came across ‘Alive Inside’ a documentary about the use of music in treating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s,” said Ken. “This really hit home as my father suffered from Alzheimer’s before he died 16 years ago.”
The clip made Ken think about how his dad had been a terrific Hawaiian steel guitar player in his day … and the germ of an idea began to form. That idea came to full fruition when they stopped at Kempsey’s Slim Dusty museum.
“When I learned that Slim initially found fame and fortune as a travelling minstrel dragging his caravan behind his trusty Ford Fairlane, I thought maybe we could become a poor version of the same thing,” said Ken, who inherited his father’s guitar skills.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Ken and Helen now crisscross the country playing concerts of music from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s at aged care homes, RSL Clubs, bowling clubs and sports clubs, raising money for Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation as they do so.
“Being able to see patients tap their toes or simply smile is really rewarding and the aged care venues like the fact we are something new and different to their usual entertainment,” said Ken. “We have banked just over $2,600 into the Foundation account and we are less than 5% along our journey.”
The couple plays its ‘Have guitar, Will Travel’ concerts for free at aged care homes but asks the big clubs where it performs to make a $100 donation directly to the Foundation.
“Our last performance at the Have guitar, will travel Times Beachport Hotel in South Australia was arranged with less than 24 hours’ notice,” said Ken. “The management did all the hard work and took up collections from the social club and we raised over $540 for the night … we were blown away!”
Having originally thought their ‘sunsets, sightseeing and Happy Hours’ Big Lap might take a year or so, Ken and Helen are having to re-think their itinerary now they have found a purpose.
“We are now thinking our lap will take perhaps four or five years,” said Ken. “And we hope that anyone who knows a club that would enjoy hosting a fund raiser show, will contact us so we can set a date.”
