A group of women from Maitland Community Preschool are about to embrace the meaning of courage, sacrifice, mateship and endurance.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Educators Bonnie Matthews and Sally-Anne Stocks, and staff member Ann-Maree Smith, will tackle the Oxfam Trailwalk – 100 kilometres through the bush from the Hawkesbury River to Manly, in less than 48 hours.
The trek is held at the end of August but the women are keen to start training for their adventure.
This is not the first physical and mental challenge for Ms Smith, who conquered the Kokoda Trek last year.
“I say conquered because it was very challenging,” she said.
“The feeling of accomplishing something like that is magnificent, empowering and has created a memory for me for life.
“It was an amazing experience, albeit emotional, and the history of our Kokoda heroes was extremely interesting.
“Even after being there it’s still hard to imagine how difficult it must have been for them.”
Ms Smith used the words courage, sacrifice, mateship and endurance to sum it up.
“It took several months of hard training, climbing mountains and walking for six to eight hours in the bush as well as 10km walks in the morning before preschool with a loaded backpack.
“It was that feeling of success, that I could achieve anything, that inspired me to walk again in 2015.
“I love a challenge.
“I sent an inspiring email invitation that went a little bit like this: ‘Feeling tired, old and frumpy? Let me inspire and motivate you to be excited, charitable, full of energy, bursting with self-satisfaction and pride.
“‘Want to do something extraordinary and for a good cause? Let’s do something momentous in our lives, something they’ll talk about at your funeral in many years to come.’
“To my surprise I received three quick responses saying ‘in’.”
The Oxfam trek pushes walkers to move day and night without sleep.
Calling themselves the Awesome Preschool Foursome, the women have paid $600 to enter as a team and want to raise more than $2000 for Oxfam’s Poverty Challenge.
Oxfam helps people and communities living in poverty around the world, including Australia.
It provides animals to work farmland and grow crops, rainwater tanks for clean and reliable water supply, banana plants, gardening tools or a cow for a family and training and support to young Aboriginal and Torres Islander people.
