2009 Media Releases
ClubsACT give youth Kokoda chance
Date 11 May 2009
It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, an all expenses paid trip to walk the entire 155km wartime trail that is the Kokoda Track.
ClubsACT along with state club associations in NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, will select 11 young people between the ages of 16 and 22 to walk the track over ten days between the 28th September and the 9th October.
This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge, a program that started in 2005 with NSW RSL clubs sending young people from their local community to Kokoda. This year will mark the 100th young person to have walked Kokoda courtesy of the RSL clubs.
CEO of ClubsACT Bob Samarcq said walking the entire wartime track is much more than a lesson in Australian military history.
“The change these people undergo in ten days is remarkable. They return with a sense of purpose, a determination to make a positive contribution in their community and a realization of just how fortunate their lives are.
“In designing the program, we have made decisions very deliberately to keep the group size extremely small. The group will be commanded by two trek leaders with a dozen local guides providing support to ensure the trip is intense but incident free.
“The successful candidates will first have to pass a medical test and then undergo three months of training to ensure they have the fitness and strength to complete the track while carrying a 25kg backpack,” he said.
Medical student and Sydney resident Kate Sullivan, who completed the 155km track last year, said while Kokoda was arguably the most difficult task she had ever undertaken, it was also one of the greatest experiences of her life.
“I now view the past 22 years of my life in 2 sections; how I was before I walked Kokoda and how I am after Kokoda. I know how fortunate I was to be given this opportunity and am determined to use the experience to help others,” she said.
More than 2,000 Australian soldiers died along the Track during 1942 and 1943, helping prevent the Japanese Army from launching a full scale assault on Australia.
At the conclusion of the trek, the group will visit the Bomana War Cemetery. The cemetery contains 3,819 Commonwealth burials from WWII, 702 of them still unidentified.
Please visit www.clubsact.com.au or email kokoda@clubsact.com.au for more information.
Media: Please contact Bob Samarcq on 0419 316 877. Applications close 21st June 2009.
