By Matthew Sims
A group of VCAL students and teachers from Narre Warren South P-12 College completed a walking marathon on Monday 4 September, trekking from their Amberley Park Drive campus all the way into Flinders Street Station.
The group of 14 Year 11 and 12 students raised $100 towards FoodBank, State Schools’ Relief and to the ACE Foundation ahead of the 42-kilometre journey.
The walk was a way for the school to give back to organisations which had provided their support to the school for a number of years, according to VCAL Teacher and participant Flynn Wilkinson.
“FoodBank have been donating food to our school for years now,” he said.
“State Schools’ Relief have been helping families access uniform and booklist items for years and earlier this year saw the ACE Foundation provide eye testing and free prescription eye glasses for dozens of students in our primary school.”
Mr Wilkinson said the students completed the journey after about 55,000 steps.
“The weather was kind with an eventual top of 22 degrees proving a bit warm before the light to medium rain from Caulfield and the eventual torrential downpour we all had to deal with down the bottom of Williams Road at Como Park,” he said.
“Students and staff didn’t bat an eyelid.
“We were on the move for almost 10 and a half hours, seeing us reach Flinders Street station at 7.15pm.”
Mr Wilkinson said a highlight of the students’ contributions was a selfless act from Toby Ihle.
“A particular shout-out to Toby Ihle who fell ill over the lead-in weekend and couldn’t participate, but insisted that the money he’d donated remain part of the total donation of the group,” he said.
“Solidarity amongst the group is certainly a feature of events such as this.
“Thanks to Trudi Godkin and Kirsten Roe for meeting us at the Dandenong Skate Park with water bottles and energising lollies to keep us going.”
