Thirty kilometres – that’s the distance three Manning Valley 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.
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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 kms starting at Kirribilli, and teams electing to take on the 60 km 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!” said Sue Temple, a team member from Lansdowne.
Sue pulled the team together as a result from a trip to Vietnam in 2017. Sue has been to Vietnam many times in the past, and this time she saw that with tourism now going ahead in leaps and bounds there are people who are falling through the cracks who are not going to benefit from the 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 are holding a garage sale on Sunday, February 4 from 8am to 1pm at 1 Figtree Drive, Diamond Beach.
For sale will be plants, books, CDs and DVDs, toys, homewares, kitchenware, bric a brac, clothing and craft.
All proceeds go towards the team fundraising effort.
The garage sale coincides with the Black Head Bazaar at Black Head Beach, so if you’re going to the bazaar, take a little detour and visit the garage sale.
The team is also holding a raffle with the prize being a homemade patchwork quilt. Raffle tickets can be bought at the garage sale, or ahead of time at Taree Off Road.
For more information on Coastrek visit coastrek.com.au.