Thirty kilometres – that’s the distance three women and a friend from Newcastle will be walking to raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation.
That’s the distance from Taree to Forster.
The team of four, calling themselves Sight 4 Sore Feet, are taking part in the Sydney Coastrek on Friday, March 16. Coastrek is a team trekking challenge that takes place in Melbourne, Sydney, and the Sunshine Coast each year to raise funds for the Fred Hollows Foundation.
The Sydney trek is a 30-60 kilometre team challenge, with teams walking 30 kilometres starting at Kirribilli, and teams electing to take on the 60 kilometre trek starting at Manly. The trek finishes at Bondi Beach.
“You have to do it in the one day in a certain amount of hours. That’s why I considered 60 for about three seconds and went, no,” team-member, Sue Temple said.
Sue, from Landsdowne pulled the team together following a trip to Vietnam in 2017. Sue has been to Vietnam many times, but on this trip saw that with tourism going ahead in leaps and bounds there were people who were falling through the cracks who did benefit from tourism.
“When I came home I thought ‘what can I do to help people in a similar situation?’ and I started researching fundraising activities,” Sue said.
“Coastrek fitted perfectly, because I had always been a big admirer of Fred and Gabi Hollows and the amazing work The Fred Hollows Foundation has done over the years. Plus it was a chance to get fit and bond with good mates.”
So she called on her good friends Tania McMullen from Diamond Beach, Frances Mudford from Mitchell’s Island and Angela Van Den Berg from Newcastle to make up her team. They happily complied.
To participate, each team member must pay $150 registration fee, which pays for administrative and infrastructure costs, and raise a minimum of $500.
They’ve already overreached the minimum, and their goal is $5000. To date they have raised $3314, with Stacks Finance providing a sizeable donation to help them reach their goal.
To reach their goal, the women held a garage sale last Sunday, February 4 at Diamond Beach.
All proceeds go towards the team fundraising effort.
The garage sale coincided with the Black Head Bazaar at Black Head Beach.
Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times for seven years. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings. Career highlights have involved environmental stories - bringing the plight of the little known endangered Manning River helmeted turtle to the attention of the public, resulting in wide-spread knowledge in the community and conservation action; and breaking the news of the Manning River ceasing to run for the first time in recorded history.
