Mr Skurrie has been a member of the Stawell Athletic Club for more than 15 years and is a two-time past president.

Mr Skurrie can remember in the late 50s collecting programs from the old fire station in Stawell.

"Every Good Friday and Easter Sunday nights you would line up and collect programs to go and sell them," he said.

"I remember walking from the fire station straight down Patrick Street yelling out 'programs' and people would come out their houses and buy them.

"Boy, has everything changed now."

That's how his love of the Stawell Gift grew.

From manually manning the scoreboard to dealing with the media and entertaining sponsors, Mr Skurrie was always eager to put his hand up for anything.

"This year I will be doing the colours for the runners," he said.

"Every race the runners have to have a colour and they come to me and I give them the colour they wear."

RELATED: Ararat runners carry hometown hopes

Mr Skurrie, a lover of all sports, said joining the committee was something he always wanted to do.

"I worked for Victorian Railways and as the saying goes, I couldn't be in two places at once," he said.

"I loved watching it from the railway station - there's an old photo around of the Gift with me and a few others standing on the roof watching it.

"When the opportunity arose to apply to be a committee member I jumped at the chance and was accepted."

2019 will be the 138^th running of the Stawell Gift, an iconic event on the athletic calendar.

"A lot of people have been coming here for more than 50 years," he said.

"That's what sport is about - gathering together. It's a shame it's not like the AFL but realistically it's only a four-day event."

It has been a difficult year for the Stawell Athletic Club, with sponsorship crisis in January.

"I am proud of how the committee banded together to get through some tough times," he said.

"It's been hard - it's hard to get sponsors for not only the main event and small events.

"It's across the board - it's not just in running it's in all sports - we aren't just singled out."

Mr Skurrie said a concern of his is there wont be people around that know the intricate details of putting together the event.

"It's something I think about often - like everyone, we aren't getting any younger," he said

"There's so many things to running the event.

"We all just have to hang in there and stick at it and everything works out in the end."

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday morning from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Northern Grampians shire, sign up here.