OCTOBER looks to be a long, dry month for Ballarat real estate agent Robert McClure.
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Mr McClure has signed up for an entire month of shunning shandies and ditching draughts in the annual Oscober campaign, which encourages participants to go dry for a month and raise money for children’s health education.
“This is an interesting time of the year because you’ve got the Grand Final and you’ve got Bathurst and people have barbecues and events like that. I think it’s a bit of a challenge, because if you do go to have a drink with your mates on Friday night they all hang it on you because you’re just drinking lemonade,” he said.
“People say ‘oh what are you doing that for?’”
However, Mr McClure said his friends had been keen to help donate for the cause.
“The other part of it is your friends support you, whether they give you a hard time or not. I emailed a lot of my friends and associates and they get in behind me and put some money up.”
Mr McClure is quite the advocate for going dry for a cause – this October will be the fourth time he had signed up to give up the grog. He also participates in the annual Dry July campaigns.
He said he liked to take the month off alcohol as it was good for his health.
Participants are given their own donation page and encourage friends and family to donate money to Life Education, an organisation that aims to empower children and young people to make safer and healthier choices by resisting participation in drug and alcohol abuse.
Life Education ambassador and Ballarat marathon legend Steve Moneghetti said Ocsober was an event with a “double whammy” of importance to him – it raised money for an organisation he was passionate about and also encouraged people to stick to their personal goals.
He said it was healthy for people to go sans alcohol for a while but also to “show a bit of strong character”.
“I want to make sure people realise that in moderation or with a meal, alcohol is fine, but as they drink to celebrate and as they overdo it, the consequences can be significant from a social point of view from also for health and wellbeing,” he said.
Ocsober organisers have reported a huge spike in registrations this year, with an increase 21 per cent nationwide. They hope to raise $700,000 by the end of the month, and have so far raised more than $242,000.
Ocsober’s website states that teenagers who start drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to become dependent on alcohol than those who don’t start until they are 21.
Mr McClure donation page is ocsober2015.everydayhero.com/au/robert-4