With a goal set to run or walk 915kms in 13 hours as part of the Darkness to Daylight Challenge, a local college has raised over $6800 in the fight against domestic violence.
Sixteen Year 10 students and three staff members from St Teresa’s Catholic College took part in the virtual challenge on Wednesday 21 October.
Due to restrictions, the event that is usually run overnight in May at Southbank in Brisbane was unable to go ahead, and so many people have joined the challenge virtually racking up kilometres each day in October.
This small group of dedicated students are passionate about the cause and ended up being the only group to participate in an overnight run.
With the assistance of Noosa Council, a course was selected along Noosa River, and students had been participating in an awareness program at the College for months in advance.
As part of the program there was physical training, climbs up Mt Coolum and walks in Noosa National Park.
Undertaking random acts of kindness and developing an understanding of the problems cause by domestic violence gave these young people a new perspective.
Each student was given the story of a survivor of domestic violence, someone they could run for through the night.
They each read the stories to get a glimpse into a world they otherwise may never know about.
A special event in the program was a dinner where they heard directly from a survivor about their story.
Lining up last Wednesday, they lit candles and prayed before setting off at 5.30pm to break previous records with the intention of setting some new records.
As night closed in, locals stopped to ask what they were doing. As they walked, they explained why they were there; people were giving donations on the spot or going to the official website to make donations to support their cause.
In the middle of the night the winds howled, and the rain came – still they ran.
With sore feet and tired bodies, they steadfastly chased down their goal, supporting each other all the way.
At 6am they joined as a group for their final lap and smashed all previous records in the College, with each student achieving their 50km goal.
One student ran 64km, setting a record for most kilometres ever ran by a student. They raised money, achieved goals, created conversations, and inspired others.
