Mates row 50km to help struggling student

Two men have taken on a 50km challenge to pay for one lucky school student’s education.

FUNDRAISING: John Ward and Adam Crawley are rowing at Invigorate Health Club in Mudjimba to raise funds for The Smith Family. Photo: John McCutcheon

ONE lucky school student will have their senior education paid for after two mates rowed 50km for the cause.

Invigorate Health Club personal trainer Adam Crawley and member John Ward decided to take on the 50km challenge 2-months ago and will donate the raised funds to The Smith Family.

Being a father of four, Mr Crawley said their $5000 goal would be going to a great cause.

“Kids struggling at school is a pretty big thing for us, we thought long and hard about all the other charities, but we thought if we could can give one kid the opportunity to succeed at school and not miss out on anything that is why we chose The Smith Family,” he said.

“$5000 will allow us to sponsor one child and it will pay for their excursions, books, their lunch and uniforms from year 7 to year 12 so we are going to sponsor one child for the whole of their senior schooling … it pays for anything they normally can’t have.

“We don’t know who the money will go to, but we have been very particular that we want someone on the Sunshine Coast.”

The four-and-a-half-hour feat left the pair with “sore necks, sore biceps, sore butts, sore hands and blisters”.

But Mr Ward said it was worth it.

“Four or five hours of pain compared with having no money when you’re going through your education is not significant for us, but it is a very significant result for the people we are support through The Smith Family,” he said.

One in six Australian children are living in poverty and lacking access to life’s basics.

Queensland general manager Alan Le May said The Smith Family was grateful for the pair’s contributions.

“Adam and John’s support for The Smith Family is fantastic and their wonderful fundraising efforts can help Australian children in need succeed at school so they can create a better future for themselves … It’s amazing to see what some people will do to make a difference,” he said.

Mr Crawley said the idea was sparked by a simple conversation.

“We came up with the idea about 2 months ago, when we worked out this [50km] is how far the machine can go, we said well we should row that and then John said, ‘we should do it for charity’ and the gym got behind us straight away,” he said.

“We had a lot of people pass by and say hi and various people rowed with us for shorter periods of time.”

The team only needs $137 to reach their goal of $5000.

To donate head to https://bit.ly/2se8bRv.

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