Motion by the Ocean with Alanagh Godderidge

PASSION: Identifying unmet needs and then taking action to enable a stronger, more vibrant community where everyone feels connected.
PURPOSE: Creating community as CEO of her charity Motion by the Ocean.

Alanagh Godderidge lives and breathes her values.  

Alanagh is the CEO and Founder of Motion by the Ocean and a pioneer of the Cycling Without Age movement in Western Australia.

Motion by the Ocean reconnects seniors and disabled communities with rippling sun, sand and a joyous fresh salt water breeze and meaningful conversations for the lonely and isolated.

Alanagh advocates for stronger, more vibrant communities and she is wheeling her way into the hearts of everyone along the northern suburbs beaches one trishaw ride at a time.

You can donate to  Motion by the Ocean on this link.

Warm thanks to:
Sponsor: Females Over Forty-five Fitness in Victoria Park
Sound Engineering: Damon Sutton
Music: William A Spence
... and all our generous and inspiring guests around the warm table this season!

Transcript

Sonia Nolan: 0:00

Welcome to My Warm Table. I'm Sonia Nolan and season two of this podcast about passion and purpose is brought to you by Females Over 45 Fitness or FOFF, in Victoria Park

Introductory Voice Over of Previous Guests: 0:13

My name is Kate Chaney. My name is Bonnie Davies. My name is Madeleine King. My name is Valerio Fantinelli. My name is Lyn Beazley. My name is Alexandra Helen Flanagan Hi, my name is Sharon Todd. My name is Lucy Cooke and I'm the CEO of SpaceDraft. I'm the first Aboriginal female funeral director. CEO and founder of Motion by the Ocean. I'm a psychologist and a professor in psychology at Curtin University. CEO and founder of Lionheart Camp for Kids. Around My Warm Table. Or listening on Sonia Nolan's My Warm Table. Just sharing a yarn with her.

Sonia Nolan: 0:37

Have you ever been so inspired to make a difference to your community that you've left your day job to start your own charity? Well, sharing the Warm Table with me this week is a woman who has done just that. Alanagh Godderidge lives and breathes her values. Alanagh is the CEO and founder of Motion by the Ocean and a pioneer of the Cycling Without Age movement in Western Australia. Through her charity Motion by the Ocean Alanagh advocates for stronger, more vibrant communities. And she's wheeling her way into the hearts of everyone along the northern suburbs beaches, one trishaw ride at a time. Motion by the Ocean reconnects seniors and disabled communities with rippling sun, sand and a joyous fresh saltwater breeze and meaningful conversations for the lonely and isolated. It's free therapy supported by a team of volunteers and the tireless, enthusiastic energy that Alanagh brings. Alanagh is a mum, a traveller and a vibrant citizen. It's clear that she uses her many skills and superpowers for good, so much good in fact, that for three years running, she has been acknowledged and awarded Australia Day Citizenship Honours. She has been dubbed a Westfield hero, a channel seven RAC local champion, and acknowledged by Lions International for exemplary service. Alanagh, what a delight it is to welcome you around My Warm Table

Alanagh Godderidge: 2:06

That's a beautiful introduction. Thank you, Sonia, it's lovely to be here.

Sonia Nolan: 2:09

You're so welcome, Alanagh, and so well deserved. You've been tireless in the last few years as you've been striving to get Motion by the Ocean up and running. So I want to hear all about that journey. What inspired you Alanagh to, to even drop your day job and start your own charity? What was going through your mind at the time?

Alanagh Godderidge: 2:27

It wasn't something that I purposely set out to do. It was via circumstance. In 2017, I needed to spend more time at home. And during that time, I watched a YouTube video of a Scotsman taking a couple of seniors out on a trishaw ride. This was my lightbulb moment. And I just thought this is what I meant to be doing - was at that time that I realised spending so much time at home, I was socially distancing myself from the community that I love. So while at home, I started gathering interest and started fundraising to bring Western Australia's first purpose-built trishaw to the Sorrento community. Support was strong from the start. We now have five trishaws and a team of 60 volunteers. They're incredible people, they hang around for a long time, we're really tight knit. We have those who ride socially on the weekends on the road bikes, they're always the ones that want to get to the destination the fastest, we're the opposite. We're more about the journey. So we're always saying, "Take it slowly," we very much value cycling slowly, it allows us to better connect with the community around us. But we are successful at what we do. Because a lot of our volunteers, they're experts in their field. I'm surrounded by incredibly professional, humble people. And I believe that's why we're as successful as what we are today because of the people I surround myself with.

Sonia Nolan: 3:56

Tell me then how Motion by the Ocean actually works as a charity. So how do people connect with you? And then what do you do?

Alanagh Godderidge: 4:04

Sure. So first of all, we have our volunteers. We've got 60 of them, about 15 of them are professional people. And we have great people who look after our website. And that's initially where all our inquiries come through. So people can book a ride via there, we're out every day of the week. We have been since we started in 2018. We're the most regular service of its type in Australia. And we've got two more bikes coming over from Melbourne, so we're going to be busier than ever before. Actually, at the start of 2020, our bikes were parked up at the start of COVID, just trying to define what that meant and how we're going to move forward. So we changed our purpose briefly and quickly. We were having seniors that were at home and they weren't able to go out anymore because their carers couldn't visit them and take them out. So obviously they were being more socially isolated than ever before. And we were telling our seniors to not go to the shops, and maybe have your children shop for you. But at that time, Perth was split up into boundaries and it was difficult to access people. So we started to partner with two of Australia's largest food recovery agencies, and we started doing food hampers. Now, we're still doing that to this day, we call that our Moving Food Programme. We thought - we didn't know how long that would go for, but with a cost of living at the moment, a lot of our seniors and more vulnerable people are hurting more than they ever have been before. So we still continue that, that's a separate group of volunteers, but it provides a more holistic approach to our mission. So we're out every morning always trying to beat the southwester so our rides start from 10. And we, we cycle between Mullaloo and Trigg. And we've just partnered with the Department of Transport, and we will shortly be offering rides from Hilary's Marina. It's a beautiful location, lots of shade and trees. And we hope to make that possible shortly once we get a sponsor or two on board, because our rides are free. I'm not sure if we've mentioned that. But obviously free rides aren't free to deliver. So we really need the business community to get on board. And you know we're often said - people often tell us, you know, we really value your work, but we really need people to put their hand up and say, "Hey, we value your work, and we want to support you."

Sonia Nolan: 6:38

You've had some really good support from your local business community, Alanagh.

Alanagh Godderidge: 6:43

We have. So when we first got started, it's lovely to start an initiative where everybody is on board straightaway, the local councils, Department of Transport, a federal member, everyone was on board. It's just wonderful to start something and know that you've got support from the powers that be to help you continue. We've had local businesses value our work, and they sponsor us. We've got our two trishaws arriving from Melbourne shortly. And as I've said previously, free rides aren't free to deliver. And of course, we would like these trishaws to be out every day to be fully utilised within our community. So we wish to welcome any businesses who would like to sponsor our work, as well as any families who may be interested in naming a trishaw as a dedication to their loved one. They can make contact with us via our website. We certainly can't do this alone. It takes a community and we're only as strong as the people who support us.

Sonia Nolan: 7:46

I love how you've actually got trishaws that are dedicated to family members. So people who may have passed, who've died who used to ride or have some sort of affinity with the northern suburbs or the beach, family members can actually buy a dedication on the trishaw. Is that right?

Alanagh Godderidge: 8:06

Yeah. So two of our treasures are already

Sonia Nolan: 8:07

So how many rides have you done since 2017? What named. One of them is called Bernie, a beautiful family. Bernadette, she rode with us before she went into palliative care. And she died shortly after. And her daughter came and saw me and said that was the last time all our family got together. We saw mom off and that trishaw when she went for a ride and we really value what you do. And we want to help you are your stats? by your second trishaw. And we were just so chuffed by that. So we said "hey, let's name this trishaw after your mum." So that's called Bernie. We have another trishaw called Anne.

Unknown: 8:44

Yeah, stats are great, it was only about three years Anne went out with us so many times. I can't remember offhand. And she had, Anne had eight children and initially Anne started riding with her husband. And he passed away a few years ago now and then and started riding with her carer and then Anne went into aged care. And then each of the eight children used to take turns with her to ride along the coast and Anne passed away just recently, and her children gifted us funds to name one of our trishaws after her. It's a beautiful dedication which allow more rides for more people. And that's what we're all about. ago where we thought oh, will do this properly and just see what our actual impact is. And it adds up really quickly when you're out every day. So collectively, our passengers have cycled 41,000 kilometres. So that's the same distance from Perth to Auckland return four times. And that's what we have done on our bikes, that's crazy.

Sonia Nolan: 9:58

That's crazy.

Alanagh Godderidge: 9:59

I know, so it's not until you start adding up you think, "Wow, we are making a big impact within our community." We've had 4200 passengers. But now as I said, we're doing more group rides. So that's going to rise exponentially, we'll be able to reach more people. But we will still keep those meaningful long rides, we very much value those.

Sonia Nolan: 10:23

There's also so many other impact stories, I'd really love you to tell me some of the things that happen along those rides. I think you've mentioned once about a woman who hadn't spoken French for years, and then all of a sudden on one of the rides that you know that language was unlocked.

Alanagh Godderidge: 10:41

So we have one lady who lives in a local nursing home and we've taken her out maybe five or six times. Maybe after the third ride, we were cycling back from trip to Sorrento, and then she starts saying hello to people that she's passing in French. And I spoke to her daughter when she picked him up after the ride. And the daughter said, "Mum hasn't spoken French in years." And it just gave us - just, it was wonderful. I really believe our big beautiful blue space of a nation really unleashes, maybe that's not the right word. It unlocks memories. Often we'll go for a ride and our passengers are very fixated on the ocean. They don't say anything they're nearly glazing over you can just tell they're trying to relive a memory. I very much believe our ocean is free therapy for all of us. And maybe that's why getting volunteers has never been an issue, I very much believe seeing the ocean and being outdoors is just as much of a benefit for our passengers as it is for our volunteers.

Sonia Nolan: 11:48

Yeah it really is something that seems like a bit of a no brainer about. You know, you've got this amazing - like really, I'm very biassed, but I do think we in Western Australia have got the best beaches in the world. We've got some incredible scenery, beautiful nature, clear oceans, lovely sand, and that salt therapy of the sea breeze is something - there's something special about it.

Unknown: 12:13

Yes, it's free therapy for all of us. It's... Yes, it's very special. Another great story we had, we had a chap he comes out from Bentley, and we love taking people to the coast who don't often get to see the ocean that often. And he told us the last time he was in the ocean. And it was just before he

Sonia Nolan: 12:27

It really does unlock that that memory like went into go into care. And he said to his sons, "I want to go to the ocean before I go into the care home in Bentley." So they took him to the beach and they said, "Dad, don't go out past those waves because you're not going to come back," and he goes "no, no, I'll be fine." So as boys are watching their dad having a swim, of course, he goes past the breakers. And it gets into a bit of strife and he loses his false teeth. So anyway, his sons come in and assist him back to the shore. And he says to me, as we're taking him on the bike paths to the beach, that he did have his last swim he said, "I always imagine my false teeth and are wondering what they're doing. And I wonder if they ever bit a lady on the bottom." And I just think wow, that's such a good story. A lot of us growing up, I've got such great memories of the beach, and whether you live near the beach, or whether you've had a holiday near the beach, just yeah it's special for a lot of people and I just love hearing those stories. And yeah, some of them are funny, a lot of their chaps are cheeky, and but we try keep them in line. But in short, they just want to get out and have fun. you've said. So the storytelling, the memory, the history and and also that the information like you've just said, you know, a lot of people, our generation, younger, they don't know, we don't know what Perth looked like, we don't know what the northern beaches looked like, we you know, we've lost a lot of that sense of, of heritage. So having that opportunity for people to reminisce and really be able to share their memories is just a beautiful way of reconnecting them back into society and making them feel relevant again.

Unknown: 14:12

Yeah, definitely. That's a great point, we really love. We have all ages who volunteer for us, but we do love getting the younger people out. We really promote intergenerational relationships or storytelling, everybody can learn from each other. And a lot of our seniors, they definitely want to be more relevant in the community in which they live. And they can be- and they can learn from the younger people who are taking them out and vice versa. So yeah, we very much value that.

Sonia Nolan: 14:45

Alanagh, I'd like to turn our clock back to COVID 2020. And when you had to reinvent yourself really, really quickly, so you know, other people could have parked the bikes, put the chains on and just sort of sat tight for a little while, but like you've said, you understood that people were even more isolated. And the whole purpose of why you exist as Motion by the Ocean was to reconnect people. So seeing that COVID times meant that lack of connection and that social distancing, and all of those words that are now part of our vernacular, that you then reinvented to do something different, which was Moving Food.

Alanagh Godderidge: 15:30

Yes, good question. So obviously, when COVID hit a lot of people put on the brakes and thought, "What's next?" and I do understand a lot of people shut up shop for a period of time. But our purpose is to have our locals and those more vulnerable, more connected within their community. So now we weren't offering trishaw rides, what we were trying to offer had exacerbated to an extent that so many of our people were isolated within their own homes who hadn't been before because they were still able to drive, they were still able to get to the shops. So the Moving Food Programme, it worked out really well for us. And it really worked out well for the people we were providing for, we had some carriers ring us up saying, "Look, I'm not getting to my supported person anymore. I know they're at home, I know they're not getting visitors." So that's when we thought we just needed to reinvent our vision, even if it was a temporary initiative. So starting the Moving Food Programme with the couple of the country's largest food organisations, not only did it help us get food to our seniors, but it also allowed us to have conversation so we would drop food to them, and we would have conversation either side of the floor wide door. They were just happy to speak with someone. So it worked out well and got more of our word out of what we were doing within the community. And then once COVID was over, we had more passengers that we could take out for bike rides. And as I said, it's a more of a holistic approach. But you know, now with the cost of living, the demand for those services is probably greater now than what it was three years ago. So we'll- we will still be providing that service to our people.

Sonia Nolan: 17:19

So how many Moving Food parcels or food have you actually delivered?

Unknown: 17:26

Yes. So again, data is great. We've started adding this up from the time we started providing the service. And to date we've provided the equivalent of 38,500 meals. It's a lot.

Sonia Nolan: 17:42

That's a lot.

Alanagh Godderidge: 17:42

And it adds up. And it helps with the food waste that is prolific within our community, saying that, I think it has got better. Just identifying who's at need. I have great relationships with other community groups where I live, so I worked with them, we identified where the need was, and we got more volunteers and they deliver the parcels and some of the stories that come back to us, the gratitude that people are feeling gives them a step up to get out again to provide for themselves. Yeah, it's really heartwarming. And the food is an immediate impact. Like the trishaws, what we do, it's an incredible service and people just feel this wonderful feeling, they feel the sense of joy, but the food hampers that is an immediate, practical benefit to those people who are receiving those. So just- it allowed us to dig deeper to see who the more vulnerable people were in the community, who were suffering more on a financial level. There's lots of ways to suffer financially, socially. It's just so important to be connected within the community in which you live. Those of us who are better connected and have a good friendship group we have a responsibility I believe to keep an eye out and to look after those, our neighbours. I mean many of us have neighbours we don't even know who they are next door just start with a knock on the door and say "hi I'm here if you need me" it just starts with a conversation and things flow from there. We can all strive to be a better community we can all benefit from it and I very much believe that.

Sonia Nolan: 19:35

It all comes back to, Alanagh, the the essence of who you are as a person like you want to make your community vibrant and you didn't just sit back and think "oh someone else- someone please make my community vibrant." You know, you actually made- you're making that yourself. You're actually getting out there and creating that.

Alanagh Godderidge: 19:55

As I said it wasn't a purposeful decision. I think maybe at the time because I needed to spend that time at home, I knew I was socially distancing myself. So I knew I needed to get back into the community, but under my own terms, so maybe this is why it resonated with me. I don't have anything to do with bikes. I think this trishaw is a facilitator for the service I want to bring within the community. But for anyone else who wants to make their community stronger, I think it's really important to see what your community is good at. And sometimes life picks you, it did for me this time. Yeah, I'm not going anywhere. I love what I do.

Sonia Nolan: 20:41

Do you have any plans to expand elsewhere? Or what's next for Motion by the Ocean?

Alanagh Godderidge: 20:46

Yeah, good question. We don't have a grand plan to go bigger, better, more. We just want to do a good job within the community in which we live. I think that has been really important to me, I think it's easier to support the community in which you live because you see those benefits. It's easier to get sponsorship from businesses who see the trishaws going up and down the coast every day in communities in which they work. So we're just going to keep doing what we're doing. We'll be offering more rides. But we won't be going further afield. We just want to be prolific in the area in which we serve and do it well.

Sonia Nolan: 21:30

Alanagh, it's been such a privilege to hear the work that you've done, or the passion - it's not even work it's a real passion of what you've put out into your community and what you've enabled people to connect with. And everything that you've said, you know, it's just music to my ears because again, you know, you espouse all the virtues and values of My Warm Table podcast which also hopes to connect communities and to bring people together in meaningful conversation. So I'm just so delighted to see how many different ways we can do that. You know, whether it's through a podcast or through a trishaw ride, whether it's through, you know, a conversation at the letterbox, there's so many ways we can connect and make our communities better. So I want to say a very big thank you for the work that you do and for joining me around My Warm Table today.

Alanagh Godderidge: 22:22

Thanks Sonia, it's so lovely to be here.

Sonia Nolan: 22:27

Thanks for joining me Sonia Nolan around the Warm Table. Let's grow the community. Please follow My Warm Table podcast on socials and like and share this episode with your family and friends. My Warm Table is brought to you by Females Over 45 Fitness. Keep listening now for a health tip from FOFF head coach Kelli Reilly.

Kelli Reilly FOFF: 22:48

Hi, it's Kelli Reilly, founder and head coach of Females Over 45 Fitness or FOFF. Did you know that during menopause, women experience a significant decline in oestrogen levels which affects their health and well being. One of the most notable changes is an increase in your cortisol levels, the hormone that's released during stress. Elevated cortisol levels can cause various symptoms such as anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, fatigue and weight gain. Managing your cortisol levels through exercise, stress reduction techniques and a healthy diet can help women maintain their physical and emotional well being during menopause and beyond. Remember, ladies, it's your time to shine.