By Eleanor Wilson
When they aren’t busy fighting fires or assisting emergency services in life threatening situations, volunteers at the Narre Warren Fire Brigade are well known for delving into other forms of charitable work.
Earlier in the year, they ran a makeshift fire truck across Melbourne for the Run For the Kids, raising thousands of dollars for the Royal Children’s Hospital.
This month, the local CFA are testing their fitness once again, all in the name of mental health awareness.
For 24 days in June, 16 members of the Narre Warren Fire Brigade are pushing their muscles to the limit to complete a total of 3139 push ups each, which equates to around 130 per day.
The challenge is run by the Push For Better Foundation, who chose the very specific number to represent the number of Australian lives lost to suicide in 2020.
“Being aware of your own mental health is really important and suicide awareness is not something that’s talked about too much,” Narre Warren CFA wellbeing officer Anastasia Barker said.
“It’s also team building, we use an app to complete the challenge and everyday they give you new information and new statistics.”
The Brigade have raised over $1100 dollars so far and hope to reach $2000 by the end of the month.
Firefighter Barker said the participating members have also set a goal to reach 25,000 push ups between the team.
To donate to the Narre Warren CFA’s push-up challenge, head to thepushupchallenge.com.au/fundraiser/NarreWarrenCFA
