Add a real challenge to your list of resolutions
1 January 2017

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer, you’ll walk and walk and walk, and you’ll make an impact that will last longer than that pesky ‘no junk food’ resolution.
Could Oxfam Trailwalker be your New Year’s resolution? There’s no challenge quite like it.
In March 2017 in Whakatāne teams of four, alongside a support crew, will walk either 50km in under 18 hours or 100km in under 36 hours, all while raising vital funds for Oxfam’s work, getting fit and sharing an experience like no other.
Going back for a third time, Bridget Jakicevich hopes to rope in her family to be part of her support crew during the event. “We’re using our children. It’s called payback time.”
“We’re gonna dip into the family pool. We’re trying to lure them with stories of campervans and motels and Whakatāne and featuring on our wills.
“We always use our kids because it’s all part of it, it’s part of the whole family thing, we do something together.
“They’ll do anything that needs to be done. They’re like that.”
Jakicevich is looking forward to spending more time with her husband using the hours that need to be put into training for the event.
“My husband is very busy and travels an enormous amount. It’s something that we can do together, it’s time that we spend together. When we’ve got something like the Oxfam Trailwalker to train for you’ve got to train and you’ve got to make time for the training, so it’s something that brings us closer together because we’ve got this joint goal.”
The event is a personal and global challenge. Participants push themselves to new physical and mental limits whilst fighting for a better chance at life for the world’s most vulnerable.
Each team must raise a minimum of $2,500 to contribute to Oxfam’s $1,000,000 goal.
In 2014, Jakicevich and her team were the top fundraisers, raising a huge $15,566.79. She also completed the walk in 2008.
“I loved it. I absolutely loved it – although it turned my feet to minced meat and I lost nine toenails.
“The people that we met on the walk - you have these amazing conversations with awesome people who are playing music and if you’re all walking at the same pace you spend a lot of time with the same kind of people. It’s just awesome. It’s just a whole pile of awesomeness.”
Rather than hitting the shops on Boxing Day, Jakicevich and her team had a strategy meeting and planned their fundraising push for the New Year.
“I’ve taken the Oxfam training recommendation and I’ve turned that into a training schedule which we’ve got on our fridge… I’m following that religiously.”
The Jakicevichs have extra incentive this time around – they are heading to France in 2017 to walk the El Camino, which is over seven times longer than the Oxfam Trailwalker.
“It’s a really good step in terms of training to make sure that we keep moving until we go and walk for 40 days in France.
“Oxfam is specifically involved in tangible projects in the Pacific, so it’s our neighbourhood. When you talk about providing water to villages in our neighbourhood, and that you can tangibly see these projects that people are actually working on, it’s just a great thing to support.
”We really get a huge benefit out of doing the Oxfam Trailwalker and it’s got huge upsides to us as people and relationships with people, and makes us feel good when we raise a lot of money but I feel that that money is going to really, really good use.”
Fundraising Event Manager Amanda Wright invited everyone to step up and take on one of the most life-changing experiences here in Aotearoa, NZ. “Not only will you empower yourself, your team, friends and family, through your fundraising efforts, you will be making a very real difference to the lives of many who live in poverty”.
Oxfam Trailwalker is held over March 25-26, 2017 at scenic Whakatāne. Teams of four will walk 50km or 100km together in under 36 hours to help save and improve lives. Oxfam Trailwalker is not a relay, the teams of four start and finish together. Entries are still being accepted – you can take part in this incredible challenge by signing up at oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz.

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