Charity Climbers Aim High
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday May 8, 2002
When the bottom dropped out of an abseiling fundraiser Mission Australia's Ian Donald decided to scale new heights.
Mt Kosciuszko to be exact.
Mr Donald was forced to come up with a new fundraising venture after an insurance crisis meant a 36-storey Sydney building was unavailable for this year's Mission Australia Heartstopper fundraiser.
The 11th-hour cancellation of the annual event, which involved people abseiling from the building to raise money for Mission Australia, left a black hole in the organisation's income.
So Mr Donald had a week to come up with a new adventure and he decided to aim high - 2228m high.
Four Volunteer Rescue Association members, including Mr Donald and Michael Brumby, will ride, walk and climb the nation's highest summit from June 8 in a bid to raise $40,000 for charity.
Their motto: ``We will do it rough for those who do it tough".
The team will cycle from Cooma to Jindabyne and trek from Jindabyne to their base camp at Thredbo before climbing to the mountain's summit.
In some areas the snow will be thigh deep and the wind chill factor could cause temperatures to plummet to minus 15 degrees.
The funds raised will be used for homeless and disadvantaged youth, families and young children in crisis and programs for gamblers.
``If one in every three households in the Illawarra gives just $1 we will reach our targets before we even leave the region," Mr Donald said.
The IMB has kick-started the campaign with a $6000 donation.
You can contribute by donating money through the IMB, calling the heightstoppers hotline on 1800 888 868 or on the web site www.mission.com.au.
© 2002 Illawarra Mercury