Challenge4Change: Canoe Challenge

15/07/2023

It’s been two weeks since we completed the canoe challenge. It was great to get the whole canoe challenge team together this morning to catch up and talk and share a few laughs.
I couldn’t have done this without everyone’s help. There is some serious talent here in a range of fields, everyone brought a skill set that helped us be successful in not just completing the challenge but the ultimate goal of raising funds and awareness for Eagles Wings.

06/07/2023

With the completion of the canoe challenge and some well earned R n R it’s been a good time to reflect on the past three years. That’s how long it took to get the challenge up and running!

From initially speaking to Travis Frenay from Valley Outdoors (Paddle and Portage) in Kangaroo Valley who helped me arrange the right canoe (a Wenonah Canoe the Itasca made of Kevlar, can’t say enough good things about it) and paddles for the challenge we needed to procure from the US, to Morgan from North Water Canada who made the custom fit spray deck (which did a great job). That alone took about 22 months thanks to COVID.

Meanwhile there was plenty of research to be done, course planning, getting safety measures in place so we wouldn’t look like complete plonkers should something go wrong.

And not to mention the training. That often meant finishing a shift at 10pm and training on the machine after that.

Importantly I had a great team of people who made things happen:
• Firstly there was Matthew Collier, this guy can really paddle and committed to training which also included days off work to complete overnight training trips. Legend.
• Matt’s wife Terry Collier became our Safety Person Ashore, this required her to take two weeks off work to travel with us and monitor the Inreach MapShare signal. A very important role and I may have caused her concern when I inadvertently forgot one day to press the live track start button🤪
• Mike and Natalie Quinlisk did all our initial videoing to promote the event, then Natalie did a great job with the website and page. These guys were great, I’m decidedly average at social media so I am so appreciative.
• Mike and Wendy Tidbold just threw all sorts of support at us. Mike took charge of promoting the event, he got us in contact with Julie from Creative Concepts PR in Townsville who did her magic getting us in front of so many media.
• Our church family totally got in behind us and supported us 100%, can’t say enough about Victoria Point Baptist Church
• Finally I should mention my wife Lavonne. When I first talked about the canoe challenge I’m sure she thought “another of his crazy ideas”. Well maybe. But she supported me all the same and believed in its purpose.

So thanks to everyone who has donated and supported us in so many ways.

From all of us in the canoe challenge team, thank you so much!!

05/07/2023

A big thankyou to Julie Johnston from Creative Concepts PR for her generosity in managing the media for our Challenge4Change: Canoe Challenge event pro bono benefiting the vulnerable children in Zambia.

Our thanks also go to the following media outlets:
TODAY
7NEWS Townsville
7NEWS Cairns
Triple M Cairns (Tammy Barker and Bodge for Breakfast)
Triple M Townsville (Pricey for Breakfast)
ABC North Queensland
ABC Far North
Townsville Bulletin

30/06/2023

Thanks again to Channel 7 who very graciously aired our fundraiser on the news. Thanks for the support and coverage.

30/06/2023

We know that there are many wonderful organisations that you can support, particularly at this time of year (EOFY). Thank you for following our challenge and sincere thanks for supporting our charity: Eagles Wings (EW Australia).

This video if a few years old - These students have grown up and many have now graduated from the Eagles Wings School. But it seemed appropriate to share today, as we say "thank you".

Donations can still be made over the next few weeks, but if you're wanting to get in before the end of financial year - tonight is your last chance!

https://townsvilletocairns-gdg-j427.raisely.com/

29/06/2023

29/06/2023

Day 11 has now been completed and we have successfully arrived at Holloways Beach, Cairns!

This was a 30km day and we made steady progress. The SE trade wind increased during the day and to be honest it was quite refreshing… even if it did make conditions choppy.

So thank you to everyone who has followed our journey and supported Eagles Wings in the process. We really appreciate it.

We are also very grateful to Creative Consultants PR at Townsville who successfully got us in front of so many media to talk about the challenge and promote Eagles Wings. Thanks too to the rest of the team, the people behind the scenes you didn’t get to see that really made things happen, Natalie and Mike Quinlisk and Mike and Wendy Tidbold. These guys did an unbelievable amount of work so thank you.

So here’s a video of us arriving at Holloways and I successfully managed to get to the beach without doing a face plant 😂

https://townsvilletocairns-gdg-j427.raisely.com/

29/06/2023

Journey completed! Thanks for following. P&M

https://townsvilletocairns-gdg-j427.raisely.com/

29/06/2023

Just had the South Passage yacht from Brissy pass us coming into Cairns!

29/06/2023

The final stretch. Cairns in sight, 20kms down and 10 to go. Having a break and a stretch.

28/06/2023

We have launched Day 11! Cairns here we come.

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