Role Models Fire Up VHA for Walkabout Week 06-Oct-09

Vodafone Hutchison Australia staff were off and running – and walking – last week, for the first annual Walkabout Week, a special fundraising event that raised not only funds for Red Dust programs, but also raised awareness of indigenous health issues.

Throughout the week, participants took as many steps as possible to reach (and hopefully surpass) their target fundraising goals, having been pledged a certain amount of money by friends and family. They monitored their steps using a pedometer provided upon their registration, then logged their progress daily, on the leaderboard. Individuals as well as teams of three competed for prizes, the top one being a coveted place on a Red Dust tour in 2010.

To fire up the teams and individual participants, Red Dust sent role models to Walkabout Week launches held in Melbourne, Hobart and Sydney during the week prior to the event. In Melbourne, teams and individual participants gathered at Vodafone Hutchison’s St. Kilda Road office to officially launch proceedings and get everyone excited about the coming week. Red Dust Managing Director, John Van Groningen, spoke to the group about Red Dust and our long and highly valued relationship with Vodafone, now Vodafone Hutchison Australia; then Red Dust Ambassador Linley Frame enticed them with her overview of a Red Dust community visit and what it means to all who are involved. Also present to encourage the VHA participants were long-time Red Dust role models Brett Wheeler and Adam Thompson.

Meanwhile, on the same day, the Hobart contingent gathered at the Tassie headquarters for a ‘pep rally’ of their own. Red Dust National Operations Manager Darren Smith and role model Glenn Manton joined them, inspiring them with encouragement and words of role model wisdom.

Sydney’s launch saw Red Dust board member, Ray Minniecon team up with Darren Smith, Brett Wheeler and fellow role models Anthony Brooks, Dan Lewinksy, Glenn Williams and Gretel Killeen at the VHA head office in Chatswood. Over 150 participants gathered to kick off the event and collect their pedometers, all of them keen to hit the roads, footpaths and hallways to start clocking up the k’s.