The Dry July Challenge
The Dry July Challenge started last year as a local fundraiser for the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, and the 1000 participants were able to raise over $250,000. It was so much fun, and such a popular idea, that this year the Dry July Challenge has gone national, and the funds raised will be distributed within each state to specific research organisations. Here in New South Wales it will still be the Prince of Wales Hospital, where it all began.
The idea is to commit to a month long without drinking any alcohol. Being ‘dry’ for all of July is about getting your head clear of the fog that alcohol creates there after habitual use. Regular drinkers are often no longer even aware of this residual affect, so they are amazed and pleased with how light they feel when they awake in the morning without any hangover, or fuzzy head, or cloudy thinking. And some people feel so much better that they realise they should stop drinking forever!
The personal discipline of the challenge is the first focus, and the second is to donate what you would have usually spent on alcohol to the Dry July Challenge. Getting your family and friends to come onside as supporters to sponsor you in your effort is also encouraged.
This is all being done online, after registering as a participant at http://www.dryjuly.com website. The Dry July Challenge is being organised like a social networking site, with profiles of participants, capacity to post messages from your supporters, seeing your national and state ranking from day to day for the amount of funds raised, and other networking possibilities.
Dr Moyes has been a lifelong teetotaller but as Superintendent at Wesley Mission for 27 years he saw firsthand the severe problems caused by alcohol. So he encourages all readers to consider signing up to be dry for July, both to help themselves and to help out this worthy cause by raising funds for the Prince of Wales Hospital.
