Port Stephens runners rev up for start of Run Against Violence virtual team challenge

Right, Tomaree Road Runners during last year's Run Against Violence virtual team challenge. They have signed up again this year.
Left is Tracey and David Pass from this year's Are We There Yet team

Runners from across Port Stephens are gearing up to take part in a virtual challenge that raises awareness for and funds to fight family violence.

The Run Against Violence virtual team challenge will kick off on Monday, August 30 with teams to log 1300 kilometres by walking or running in their local government areas by midnight on Friday, September 17.

Run Against Violence charity founder Kirrily Dear established the challenge in 2017 in conjunction with her 19-day, 1300km solo run from Broken Hill to Sydney. The run brought people together from throughout regional NSW to raise awareness about family violence and its impact on the community.

Teams from Raymond Terrace, Bobs Farm, Shoal Bay, Corlette and Medowie have signed up for the fourth annual RAV virtual team challenge. Colleen Knight will lead members of the Shoal Bay-based Tomaree Road Runners team in their second RAV challenge. The team has 16 runners signed up.
The Tomaree Road Runners was established in 2018 and is part of the larger community run group the Tomaree Trotters, of which Dear is also a member.
"Tomaree Trotters have other teams registered in the RAV challenge and are big supporters of this cause," she said.
Knight said she has previously heard Dear speak about family violence and the RAV challenge at events which is "what inspired me to take part".

"As with others in our team, I know people personally affected by family violence. Working in secondary education I see the effects family violence has on our youth. It needs to stop. Communities and individuals need to feel safe and be able to speak up. Too many lives are lost to family violence each year," Knight said.

"Our team will complete the 1300kms required for the challenge as a whole, however, within the team there are options for an individual challenge of either 130kms or 200kms that team members can pledge to complete and receive either a silver (130kms) or gold (200kms) medal.

"Last year we completed the challenge mostly within the Fingal Bay, Shoal Bay, Salamander Bay, Soldiers Point area. Last year we wore our RAV merchandise and on the final day of the challenge a number of team members wore white tutus to raise awareness and start conversations."

 Some of the Tomaree Road Runners RAV team. Tracey Pass, leader of the Bobs Farm-based Are We There Yet team, has taken part in the RAV challenge since 2017. Eight members of the team are Tomaree Trotters members and three others are from across Australia who needed a team to participate with.
Pass said she liked to participate in the RAV challenge to "help get the word out about family and domestic violence, to let people know it's ok to talk about it and to support RAV in their efforts to educate particularly young people about the effects of domestic and family violence".

As for completing the 1300km distance in 19 days, Pass said: "Everybody has a different strategy for getting it done but we all encourage one another along the way".

Pass and David husband will undertake an individual 24 hour challenge to log their team's required 1300kms.

During the challenge, teams upload their distances to an online tracker daily, which keeps them in the competition. The tracker collects and collates each team member's distances. Participants can watch their team trek the 1300km from Broken Hill to Sydney on a map.

To be successful, the team is required to cover 1300km in the 19 days of the challenge. Runners also raise funds while completing the 1300kms.

The aim is to raise $180,000 this year for the National Association for Prevention of Child abuse and Neglect and the Run Against Violence Grants program.

Some of the Tomaree Road Runners RAV team.