When:
Sunday February 20th, 2022
Where:
Start from the beach end of the Polo Fields (car park) at Point Nepean National Park, Portsea
OR
If you are unable to participate, you may wish to make a donation to mental health research
What:
A Walk NOT a race. There are 3 walks you can choose from and they are”
a.From the Polo Fields to Observation point and return along the beach or Coles track. Distance approx. 2.8kms
b. From the Polo Fields to Gunners Cottage and return along the beach or Coles track. Distance approx. 5.2kms
c. From the Polo Fields to Point Nepean and return via Defence Road, the beach or Coles track. Distance approx. 9.5kms
Walkers have the option to turn around at any time.
If you want to stay afterwards and have a picnic lunch you certainly can, please pack your own picnic.
Click here for maps of the a. b. and c. walks at Point Nepean National Park
How strenuous is the Walk/Is the Walk difficult?
That depends on the physical health of the individual. The idea is to “walk and talk” about mental health so routes are designed to be manageable by most including those with mobility challenges.
Who:
Everyone who has been impacted by or cares about Mental Health –
unfortunately DOGS ARE NOT WELCOMED
as this is a National Park area!
Entry fee: $30 includes a t-shirt. Kids 15 and under walk for free.
Ticket purchase including your t-shirt cut off is 9 am Thursday, February 3rd, 2022.
Entries purchased after 9 am on February 11th 2021 will NOT receive a
t-shirt so get in early.
All orders from then will only include your ticket entry into the WALK.
Registration:
From 8am in the park area beside the Polo Fields in the
Point Nepean National Park - Please register and collect t-shirts.
You can register from 8am on the day, credit card facilities available.
Please bring:
Participants are encouraged to bring their own sunscreen and water bottles on the day for great protection, hygiene and COVID safe management.
Look after the environment and all bottles or rubbish you take with you must be taken home for proper disposal
There is no safe drinking water available from Gunners Cottage to Point Nepean.
Parking:
$5 supervised parking will be available on the Polo Fields
2021 - EVENT SPONSORS
To get involved in 2022 as a sponsor please get in touch!
ABOUT THE WALK”
The Rotary Club of Sorrento aims to have a number of other Rotary Clubs in the District stage a WALK FOR MENTAL HEALTH in October of each year to coincide with Victoria’s Mental Health Month.
The “point of difference” is that the walk is not a race. It is a family occasion offering an organised “fun” walk in the Point Nepean National Park. Walkers have the option to turn around at any time.
PROJECT BENEFITS
This is a great project because it:
1. Raises much-needed funds for ARH Mental Health Research
2. Offers an opportunity for the community to identify with those suffering from mental health issues.
3. It provides an outlet for those suffering from mental health issues. For example, every year there have been families and friends wearing their own special t-shirts honouring a loved one who has been lost as a result of a mental health issue.
4 Will bring visitors to Portsea, Sorrento and the Southern Peninsula area in general, which is good for local businesses and tourism.
COVID SAFETY REQUIREMENTS
YOU and YOUR safety are very important to us and so are the RULES.
YOU CAN VIEW OUR COVID SAFE PLAN HERE:
We're only too aware of the impact of COVID 19 on the mental health of Aussies and while we can't wait to get outside in the fresh air and walk and talk with you, keeping our community safe is of the utmost importance to us too.
In 2022 we will still be working with the most current Victorian Dept of Health COVID 19 Safe Event Checklist to ensure we deliver you the safest experience we can.
Before the WALK
We are working to an approved COVID Safe Plan as required by relevant federal, state and local health authorities
Registration details will require you to share relevant contact information for every individual so we are able to get in touch with you if need be
We may need to assign you to a grouped arrival/registration time to manage and limit the number of people registering at any one time. You will be notified of this via email in your safety briefing update
We are keeping our website updated with all information and we will send a safety briefing update to you via email in the week prior to the event
On the day at REGISTRATION
All volunteer event staff will be fully briefed and wearing masks as required.
There will be dedicated Marshals to managing social distancing compliance
Hand sanitiser will be available to you at stations. We may need to provide you with staggered registration and start times to manage on-site traffic
Registration and T-shirt collection areas will include digital options and marked social distancing requirements will be shown
We encourage you to register as efficiently as you can and disperse to a safe socially distanced area before you start
While you are WALKING
As it's not a race we encourage you to spread out across the WALK path and maintain social distancing requirements at all times.
Please bring your own water bottle to ensure good hydration and safe use
When you're done
While we'd love you to stay around and enjoy the activity that each local event provides we still need you to do so in a safe and compliant manner.
Every location will feature signage and instruction per their specific event details on-site for you to follow
Just in case we ASK
If you feel unwell, have a cough, cold or fever, sore throat, fatigue or shortness of breath. We will miss you but please stay home
If during the WALK you feel unwell and need medical assistance please locate a Marshal, event official, or First Aid officer.
Maintaining the required social/physical distance is your responsibility, please do it
Please follow the signage and instructions
Keep on eye out on the website, social media and email for event updates
In the EVENT we did get COVID cancelled.
Just in case the current walk format is cancelled because of COVID we'll still be going ahead just differently. We'd love you to get out on the day of the event and walk and talk with us. We will shift it online and do it virtually!
We encourage you to share it on socials while adhering to any necessary restrictions, of course. Given we are raising vital funds for mental health research and it's honestly never been more important, your ticket registration donation will make a huge difference to what Australian Rotary Health research funding can achieve.
Your shiny new t-shirt will still be waiting for you to collect and we'll keep you up to date of a safe place and time for that to happen via email in the event we can't go ahead on the day.
COME ON....LET'S GET WALKING AND GET EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH!
