Charitable Miles Devils win XXXX Community Club Award for July
The Miles Devils Rugby League Club is setting a cracking pace and incredible standard when it comes to being a true community club for everyone.
You could easily write a book on all the proactive and positive things they do for a community of approximately 1400 people, and it is this generosity that has seen them win the XXXX Community Club Award for the month of July.
“We’ve shown a lot of resilience through the years,” club president Ken Brown said.
“Like any club we’ve been through our highs and lows but we’ve always stuck in there. We have a really good community, supporters and sponsors who have also stuck by us.”
That support has been reciprocated by the Miles club. Brown said he was determined to give back to the community in a variety of ways and the club has an outstanding record in doing so throughout the entire year.
Miles Rugby League Club has opened the facilities for fundraisers such as the Queensland Cancer Council Relay for Life and continues with other fundraising for local families who have had to deal with personal tragedies.
“We also held an event for the Miles Back to the Bush Festival and we are in consultation with the Miles Chamber of Commerce to have the annual Christmas party held at our facilities as well,” Brown said.
In recent years the club has secured grants and put them into valuable community infrastructure including a refurbished clubhouse, covered grandstand and a digital scoreboard. The scoreboard is named after the late and legendary Joe Hollis.
“Joe Hollis was our scorer and timekeeper here for around 40 years in the days when you’d put the numbers up on the board (manually),” Brown said.
“There were no sirens or hooters and to signal time Joe would hit a truck brake drum with a hammer. To name the new scoreboard after him seemed like the right thing to do to ensure Joe’s name is embedded in the club forever. He was a good volunteer who turned up every week, rain, hail or shine.”
The Miles club has found innovative ways to raise funds including raising $3600 by auctioning “a team” of 13 fishing lures handcrafted by former player Clayton Kuhn in Devils team colours. Former players rushed to buy the number they played in.
This year the Miles Devils members and players have a roster where they deliver Meals on Wheels to the elderly, bringing a smile to the recipients faces and providing a real sense of achievement for those taking part.
The club also assists those going through tough times, including one man who needed rehabilitation after suffering PTSD.
“He told me his story and he wanted to help out at the ground with mowing and other work,” Brown said.
“It was good therapy for him because it gave him fresh air and a purpose to get out of bed every morning.”
The club has also made available its fields for helicopters that save lives for organisations.
“We provide a landing pad for Life Flight because we have a lot of medical retrievals out here. We have good medical facilities but not many doctors,” Brown said.
“We let them use the flood lights for free if they need to land at night.”
The club put out the call for a female team and while there is no regular competition there are now women playing and contributing to the growth of the club.
The Miles seniors have A grade and reserves and are hoping for an under 16s team next year.
The junior club has players from under 6s through to 12s but lose players who often go away to boarding school.
Changes in society and work rosters, particularly for those working in the resources sector, have made it difficult to attract players who are available on a regular basis.
“So what we have done is put feelers out to overseas players because we still have Monday to Friday jobs here that we can give them,” Brown said.
“We have a few players coming next year and that will boost our local stocks. We are not trying to replace the locals but help them. I think it will resonate into something where people will come and watch these fellas play and it will be a good shot in the arm for our club.”
