SPORTS NEWS

Josh Vassallo

EIS Coordinator

Year 10 EIS Group

I hope you’re all healthy and happy.

I would like to share a fantastic initiative my Year 10 EIS group began on Sunday, 3 May, in light of recent heartbreaks in the Geelong Community.

Tragically, several school students across the Geelong region have taken their own lives in 2020. Our group has been touched in differing ways by all of these tragedies, with some personally knowing all of these students.

We wanted to do something positive, something that has meaning, raises awareness, promotes resilience and seeking help, that creates conversations and that helps break down the stigma of mental illness … something that might just impact these kinds of statistics for the remainder of 2020 and beyond.

So, the Year 10 EIS students, myself and our coach Ned have decided to run, ride, walk and swim 8010 kilometres in 31 days to raise money for Headspace Geelong. Why 8010? That’s the distance from NGSC to the most Northern tip of Australia, and back. That’s an average of 258 kms per day, 15 kms per person, for 31 days.

How can you help? The group would like to ask you to please share our message far and wide. By discussing with your own children, families and loved ones the support networks available in Geelong for Mental Illness and Emotional well-being, by sharing our journey and promoting our cause and, if possible, by donating any amount of money possible to our cause (Headspace fundraising link to be shared ASAP).

Here is your weekly 8010 update! What a week and weekend we’ve had. The weather was kind and the k’s were flowing. We went into the weekend with just shy of 3,800 km’s, more than 450 ahead of schedule. What occurred on Saturday had to be seen to be believed (you can check it out below!). We amassed a lazy 600 km’s, with plenty of opportunity to raise awareness and money towards youth mental health and suicide prevention.

You can follow our journey via our Strava page below and our tracking spreadsheet.

https://www.strava.com/clubs/653126

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HfNOoHJRCCIykiYV0jrn2TuPOO9W95RcsOAgZEgl_m0/edit#gid=0