Menslink walkers are more than halfway through their 142 km trek around Canberra. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.
At this point, Emily Shoemark is smiling through the pain.
The director at local Canberra law firm Snedden Hall and Gallop is among 35 walkers who set off from Holder this morning (14 November) to walk 24 km to the Abode Hotel in Kingston.
And this is only day three of five.
“I have some bad blisters, and my feet are sore,” she says.
“But I am really enjoying it and having lots of fun.”
Now in its fourth year, the Menslink ‘Great Walk’ involves walking a total of 142 km over seven days along Canberra’s Centenary Trail, beginning at Parliament House and finishing at the Southern Cross Club in Yarralumla.
It’s a major fundraising event for Menslink, which supports young men and their families in the Canberra community through volunteer mentoring, counselling, and school and workplace programs.
It costs over $1800 to support one young guy through a Menslink program, and the Great Walk asks each of its participants to commit to raising $10,000 each.
The last three Great Walks have raised more than $1 million.
As for the trail, it’s longer than both the Kokoda track (96 km) and the hike to Everest Base Camp (130 km), and according to Menslink, it also “promises to give everyone a new perspective” on Canberra while walking alongside our city’s “great movers and shakers”.
For 2024, there are 30 walkers involved, and so far, on day three, many of them have already cracked the $10,000 mark.
“A few different things made me take part,” Ms Shoemark says.
“Some personal experience with men’s mental health issues, and my kids are at an age where there’s a lot of live issues that Menslink helps with, and it’s just a great cause, great organisation. And I like the challenge of doing the walk as well.”
Andy Friend, once an Australian rugby union player and now a coach with his own new start-up business, Performance Friend, first heard about the Great Walk about a year ago and signed up for this one almost immediately.
“I thought what a great thing to do,” he says.
“And I’ve been meeting a lot of great people here.”
Menslink CEO Ben Gathercole says all of the walkers are here because they “have this real desire to give back to the local community”.
“The reason we do what we do is because we know there’s a ripple effect involved,” he says.
“If we’re making better young fellas, we know they’re going to be better at home to their mums, to their nans, to their sisters and better in the community.
“I always get asked, ‘How can I help?’ Coming out and doing something like this, [the walkers] know the money they contribute goes back into the local community, but not only that – it’s also about awareness, it’s about going out … and talking about Menslink.”
For one, when Andy arrives at the Southern Cross Club on Saturday, he’s looking forward to celebrating by cracking open a beer and “putting the shoes away for a couple of weeks”.
For Katie Binstock from Thomson Geer Lawyers, another here to support “a great organisation”, will be “putting on the compression socks and having a sleep”.
Donate to the Menslink Great Walk 2024 online.
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