The highest honor and recognition the Board can bestow is Life Membership. As you would expect, given its prestige, only 15 individuals have been anointed to date within Variety in South Australia. It is with great pleasure that we announce that Ron Barton has been awarded Life Membership of Variety SA.
Ron has served our organization in a raft of ways for the past 19 years.
Ron was first introduced to Variety by his great mate Barry Ion over lunch when Barry was trying to get Ron to sponsor a Bash car and in the end, as Ron does, he just bought the car and entered his first Bash to Byron Bay on 2003.
Ron had such a good time he added another 14 Bash’s to his tally, eight as an OV, six as an entrant and was on the Bash committee for nine years from 2008 – 2017.
Ron’s appetite for motoring events was whet and he joined the off road crew participating in 13 4WD Adventures.
Hiss passion for motorcycles had him join the inaugural Variety V2 event and he has participated in every event since. He expanded his role to join the committee in the newly branded Moto Run in 2018 and became the event Chair in 2019 completing 3 years at the helm at the recently completed 2021 event. Under his leadership the event set new fundraising records and generated $1.3M in that time.
Ron was the Chair and Founder of Variety ‘Kick in for Kids’; a series of highly successful fundraisers including Radiothons, Adventure TV treks and Golf Days raising in excess of $978,000.
As a very successful businessman Ron’s acumen was always going to lead him to the Board and he joined in 2008 graduating to Chair in 2013. A highlight for Ron was accepting the Variety International Gold Heart award in Milwaukee in 2015 on behalf of Tent 75. Ron served the Board for 13 years and was a member of the Governance and Audit Committee for four years.
Through his group of companies Ron has been a generous sponsor and business partner of Variety for the past 13 years including recently upgrading to Joint Major sponsor of the Moto Run.
Ron received the prestigious Variety International Presidential Citation in 2015 and was acknowledged with a From the Heart award in 2019 reinforcing his exceptional service within Variety SA.
Ron is a doer and does it always with a laugh. He has a genuine care and compassion for the children who benefit.
To that end, Ron Barton is a very worthy Life Member and we congratulate him on achieving this recognition.
