Runners Vic Bovalino, Lucas White, Grant Hicks and Ben McPherson put in hard yards for Under the Same Stars.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Shepparton’s Grant Hicks ran a staggering 100km over the course of 12 hours in aid of the Salvation Army’s Miles from Home/Under the Stars event - raising valuable funds for youth homelessness.
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Having been central in pioneering the running element to the event, the -year-old led by example alongside a host of Shepparton Runners Club members in a bid to raise awareness and vital donations for the cause.
In excess of an estimated $47,000 was raised for charity as part of the wider Home/Under the Stars appeal - which saw runners, sleepers, and donors come together to raise money.
Organized by youth participation worker Jim Gow and the Salvation Army team, the Salvos Sleepout on April 15 proved a major success, with dignitaries including Kim O’Keefe MP and Mayor of Greater Shepperton Shane Sali among the 80 people who slept under the stars at Deakin Reserve.
“The amount we raised was truly incredible,” said Gow.
“Our youth services are thankful for the participation of the runners, the sleepers, the donors and the partners/sponsors that made this great event happen.
“Momentum from last year made this year’s event inevitable – and bigger.”
The idea to introduce running as a means of raising funds was inspired by the efforts of Peter Ralph and Vic Bovalino, who dusted off their runners to put in the hard yards in a bid to earn donations.
Grant Hicks put in a massive effort with his running heroics for the Salvation Army's appeal.
“We ended up running the 100 miles last year in under 22 hours, which was a massive personal achievement,” Ralph said.
“But we wanted to create more of a community running event – something that the running community can be a part of.”
“Being friends with the guys who did it last year, we have had similar running goals in the last year,” Hicks said.
“When I heard last year that they were going to run from Melbourne to Shepparton, I was pretty keen to be involved with that and support them to raise some funds.
“When the opportunity to do this came up this year, I put my hand up straight away and set myself an achievable goal - the idea was to try and draw some attention to the cause.
“There were some 70-odd runners, who came to do anything from 2ks to 160ks, so community-wise, it’s something I really love to be part of and it’s mostly because of the guys who set the standard last year!”
After doing his bit this time around for the cause, hero Hicks has reflected on traversing some 100km alongside his friends from the Shepparton Runners Club.
“I really enjoy running anyway and find it a really important part of my physical and mental health,” he said.
“I keep a reasonably high level of fitness in terms of running but I did put in some 30k runs on a Sunday in the lead up to the 100ks.”
“A friend of mine came down and started with me and did close to 10k then went off to work, we had people coming and running during their lunch breaks, I personally was out there for 12 hours to cover the 100km.
“The fact we had people coming and going with different conversations as we were going around the 800m course kept you going,” he said, as he looked back upon the collective effort involved on the day.
“Probably the biggest challenge was running on such a small circuit and running on the concrete as far as recovery goes - but the volume of people involved was absolutely brilliant.”
Speaking about the important of the wider Salvation Army appeal, Hicks expressed his hope that the efforts of this year’s runners will help to raise awareness as well as funds.
“It draws a focus on homelessness and the importance of having your own physical space as a younger person.
“Just drawing people’s attention to the fact that it is an issue but also that we can do something about it being part of this event, as a volunteer, sleeping out, running - there’s a lot of different ways that people can get involved.”
You can still donate here to the Salvation Army’s Under The Same Stars appeal on their website, as the charity looks to reach its goal of raising $50,000 for youth homelessness.
