WELCOME TO

UCARF

ULYSSES CLUB SUPPORTING
RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS RESEARCH

Show you support with a UCARF Patch and Badge

ABOUT UCARF

Rheumatoid arthritis research has been the preferred charity of the Ulysses Club since 1997 when founding member the late Stephen Dearnley OAM proposed the initiative. The impetus for the funding support was the sad death a year earlier of Stephen’s wife Jo who had lost a 20 year battle with the insidious disease.

The club has generously and proudly sponsored many scientific researchers over the last 17 years with strong support of the 137 plus branches. A few years ago the club took complete control of the funds by setting up a separate account known as UCARF (Ulysses Club Arthritis Research Fund). With this latter arrangement the club can now fulfil its idea of ensuring that 100% of donations are directed to the scientific researchers in the form of sponsorship. We are currently supporting a post graduate sponsorship at the Institute of Bone and Joint Research (IBJR) at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and another at Monash University in Melbourne.

The present UCARF Coordinator is Ken Eaton and his little side kick TedE. The decision to choose award recipients is based on the previous year total donations to UCARF from Branch fundraising activities.

The awards are presented to the winning Branches during the Civic Welcome Ceremony, which is held immediately after the conclusion of the Grand Parade on Saturday morning. Both awards are presented by the Club’s UCARF Coordinator, with support from fund recipients engaged in arthritis research. The two awards presented are the Jo Dearnley Memorial Award and the Good Joint Award.
The Jo Dearnley Memorial Award was introduced as a perpetual shield to be awarded to the Branch which donates the most money to the Club’s preferred charity (UCARF) during the previous calendar year.

The Good Joint Award is also a perpetual shield that was introduced to recognise the generosity of smaller branches that due to their size are unable to compete in raising funds with larger branches. The winner of this award may be either a single small branch or a cluster of small branches that raises an impressive comparative amount of funds during the previous calendar year.

THE UCARF PATCH

A casual meeting between UCARF coordinator Kim Kennerson and Ken Eaton from the Joondalup Ulysses Branch led to a discussion about the idea of producing a UCARF Patch as a means of allowing our Ulysses Members to show their support for this wonderful cause while also creating a method of ongoing fund raising for the UCARF Rheumatoid Arthritis Research effort.

With the backing of a local business, Ken was able to find a kind hearted graphic designer and a sponsor to finance the initial production of patches and buttons to make this fund raiser a reality through Ken and Chloe’s I ride With Chloe Charities.

We hope all Ulyssians will support our patch fund raising campaign with all proceeds, apart from the repurchase of items, going to the UCARF cause.

Branches are encouraged to discount bulk purchase the colourful fully embroidered  patches and buttons as a way of UCARF fundraising for their branches.

THE UCARF BUTTON

To complement the UCARF patch, a lovely metal and enamel button with butterfly clutch has been produced for those who love to collect and pin buttons onto their riding gear, or who prefer to display their support with something smaller.    

THE UCARF BUTTERFLY

 Purple and Blue are the colours used throughout the world on Awareness Ribbons to represent the disease of Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The Butterfly is viewed by many cultures around the world as a deep and powerful representation of endurance, change, hope, and life.

    Patrick Yam  donated his time and skills to combine the ribbon colours with the power of the butterfly to produce this beautiful UCARF Butterfly symbol for the exclusive use by the Ulysses Club. We thank him for allowing us to share his talent.