April 2010

Through the kindness of our sponsors we are delighted to be able to offer fundraising prizes as recognition of all your hard work. The top 3 individual fundraisers will be eligible for prizes as listed on the website. We know how hard it is to raise funds - we've been there. Help us grow the event by forwarding this email onto your friends and family; talking to your pastor or youth leader; ordering a Promo DVD and showing it to your mum's group; what are you waiting for? You can also send an email to a friend from the website. The DSE and Parks Victoria have been hard at work in the Dandenong Ranges performing bushfire prevention works - which have included back burning and tree lopping. Some of this work has been taking place along the event's track and signs have been placed advising workers to wear protective equipment. These signs have been placed for the workers, but walkers please take care. For more trail updates, click here. Why not put on a Trivia night? Make sure you have lots of fun with your friends with this favourite fundraiser. Get some great prizes donated and hold an auction and a raffle on the night to help raise more money. Make up your own trivia questions – have some fun! We have a sample Trivia Quiz based on the event and the Dalits (download it here). For more fundraising ideas, click  here. With only 4 weeks to go, you will need to start doing some serious walking. Try aiming to do 6 walks this week  and rest on 1 day. The first 5 walks in the week should be 30mins - and adding approx. 20mins for each successive walk (e.g. Mon - 30mins, Tues - 50mins, Wed - 110 mins, Thu - 130mins, Fri - 2 hours). The final walk for the week should be a longer walk (e.g. Sat - 4 hours). It is important to do this longer walk on the event's trail in the hills. Go to Training Tips here. For more information about the event go to our web page: http://www.walk4charity.com We welcome your comments and suggestions on this newsletter. Email the editor.   Back issues of Go the Extra Mile newsletters can be found here. Click here for Newsletter archives.

With just 4 weeks to go, we're on the run-down to the event. We encourage all walkers intending on participating in the event to register as soon as possible as this will provide you with necessary event information including a mapbook. It also helps us plan the event. Remember you must have at least 2 in your team and all kids under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. You can register here. Dalit life is extremely difficult. Hard physical labour is common. Even children are required to carry heavy loads during harvest season and life for an Indian Dalit child is far different from life for a child in the west. When children are sold by their parents into bonded labour contracts, children as young as five years old will begin their working life. They work for ruthless employers whose only interest is using their cheap, child labour force to build their wealth base. Meanwhile a Dalit's childhood is squandered. It's not right and we walk to change this social injustice. Watch the slideshow about life for the Dalits here. Introducing the new donations page! You can now conveniently view all your supporter donations in a tabbed format. You can also view your team pledge, your personal pledge along with your fundraising rankings. This is great for your supporters and donors to check out and donate directly to you. To access the donations page click on myWALK >> Team Page, the select a team and click on the Donations heading located above the team name (top, left corner).  Our Top Teams & Walkers - The Leaderboard   Team Fundraisers The long and the short of it $2,505.00 Hill's Tribe $1,835.60 Breathing Not Talking $1,051.00 Individual Fundraisers Bronwyn Neville $2,272.50 Beverley Hughes $955.00 Madeleine Jackel $747.00 We are looking for folks who can help us on event day. If you know someone who can help please encourage them to contact us. Sydney, Adelaide and Perth Bushwalkers - know someone who could help us get a walk started in those cities? We'd love to hear from them as we look to extend Go the Extra Mile into other capital cities. We walk to change the appalling situation that traps the Dalit children of India in a lifetime of extreme poverty. Through the work of the Bridge of Hope centres, the poverty cycle is being broken - the gospel is being preached, dignity is being restored and lives are being transformed - forever. Remember that every dollar you raise is used to bring tangible benefits to countless children's lives!

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