Justine’s Corner

Justine in India (Trek for Tibet 2005)

How did it get to February so quick!  So far 2012 is off to an exciting start. Inspired Adventures has many new trips planned and some exhilarating destinations and journeys to share.  I take great pride in being able to work with my team and build on the successes of 2011 and take things to new levels this year.

A relaxing break over the festive season gave me plenty of time to reflect and to think ahead. Having had the time to be still in mind and body, I have been able to work on my resolutions for this year, some of which I would like to share with you:

-       Enjoy the now and live in the moment

As part of enjoying the now and living in the moment, I want to be able to celebrate every minor (and major!) success that Inspired Adventures facilitates on behalf of our charity partners as well as keenly observe, encourage and congratulate the fundraising and physical exertions of each and every one of our participants; I want to cherish moments with my wonderful staff in our new office space and share in their challenges and achievements. Living in the moment and enjoying the now will be my font of inspiration for this year and beyond.

-       Lead my first Inspired Adventure since 2007

In the past I have pushed myself to physical limits that I didn’t think I was capable of. Reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. This year, now that my daughter is three, I intend to start training again to go back to the source of my motivation for starting Inspired Adventures and lead and encourage people to achieve their personal goals in a challenging and rewarding physical setting.

-       Get fit and take up cycling

I am not a serious cyclist – yet. In merging this resolution with the previous one, I am considering taking on and leading a cycling challenge in Cambodia. A knee injury has ruled me out of a marathon or trekking challenge but I am really looking forward to training and getting fit again on two wheels.

-       Be creative, set an exciting new goal and give time generously

These last three will intertwine and reinforce my other resolutions. I will endeavour to be as creative as possible in my existing and new pursuits; I look forward to setting a new goal and being motivated to see it to fruition and I look forward to watching life take on a new dimension as I invest in time to be able to give it more generously.

While many of these may not seem like tangible goals with instant gratification and reward, I know and understand the enormous sense of accomplishment when you go out of your comfort zone and make headway towards something you have set your heart to. This is my journey in 2012.  I am prepared to rise to the challenge, learn new things, put my heart and soul into it and discover more about myself along the way.

Here’s to an interesting, exciting and inspiring journey in 2012.

Justine

To see just how exciting 2012 is shaping up to be, please check out the Inspired Adventures calendar.

“We explored, we hiked, we ran, we biked…
We sweated, we tried, we laughed, we cried…
WE RAISED OVER $1.7 MILLION!!!!”

2011 - a fantastic year for Inspired Adventures!

Wow – 2011 was indeed a year of frenetic activity for Inspired with over 300 people signing up to raise money for our wonderful charity partners. Overall, $1.7 million was raised – a truly amazing achievement! We are very proud of each and every person who has taken time out of their day-to-day life to raise money for their cause and then take part in an incredible adventure in places like Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Peru, India, Sumatra – just to name a few. Our team in the office also grew and was burgeoning beyond our capacity to accommodate them. This resulted in our recent move to a new office where will will continue our fundraising adventures in the new year.

Looking back on 2011, we would like to share with you some highlights and quotes from the year that was:

Highlights:

• 27 Inspired Adventures successfully completed
• 302 Inspiring people achieved their goals
• Over $1.7 million dollars was raised for our charity partners (taking us to a total of over $5.4 million since 2005!!)
• 47 people crossed the finish line of the New York Marathon
• Our very own Inspired Adventures team member Nadia Killeen completed the New York Marathon for Kids Helpline. Read more…
• 90% of all participants who attempted Mt. Kilimanjaro summited – an awesome accomplishment! (with a special mention going to the 17 members of the Leukaemia Foundation Australia team who all reached the summit raising over $100,000!)
• One participant, Margaret, was given the gift of a lifetime last Christmas. Her husband signed her up to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro for Cure Cancer. (Hint: a great Christmas idea for those still trying to find that something special for themselves or a loved one – check out our calendar)
• Record breaking: within 72 hours, 18 amazing people signed up to climb Mt. Kili in 2012 for Amnesty International Australia
• We launched our first ‘Insight Tour’ for Plan offering rare insight into communities and the impact of grassroots projects.

Quotable quotes for 2011:

Kyle’s Inspired Adventurer’s take Asia and New York by storm

“You can take 20 near strangers, chuck them in a foreign land together, and within days they will think like a team, act like a family, and joke like lifelong friends. It is truly life-changing.” Kyle

Nadia’s Marathon Magic

“I learned many things from this experience: about myself; about the generosity of strangers; about the joy of friends and family; about the blessing of good health and a happy life. However, what I really learned 48 hours after running a marathon was that my body could handle the miles better than the booze!”

Doing it for Flinders through the Hai Van Pass

“We learnt that ‘Doing it for Flinders’ makes cycling up the Hai Van Pass in Vietnam a piece of cake!” Team Flinders

Margaret on receiving a place on the Cure Cancer Mount Kilimanjaro Challenge from her husband as a Christmas present last year

“I was emotionally overwhelmed. Even over the next couple of days, when anybody asked me what I got from Santa, I couldn’t help but cry.” Margaret

Damien quoted by Anne in Nadia’s Marathon Magic comments section

“This is what you have been working for- this is what its all about, we all made it- we are here- we deserve to enjoy it”! Damien

Team Leader Matt on Alzheimer’s Climb Kili

“Job done…… I am so proud of all the members of Team Tembo. You guys rock and life will not be the same after this experience of a lifetime.” Matthew

Nepal CEO trekkers

“On a 6hr bumpy bus ride to Chitwan – everyone is feeling great and enjoying all the different sites, sounds, smells and new experiences! Go team, you are amazing and doing great work! The funds raised by this team go directly to support women and children affected by domestic violence… Great work!”

Inspired Adventures looks forward to the new adventures that 2012 holds with great anticipation. We have new challenges (even a swim!), new adventures, new marathons (including an outback marathon!), historical anniversary treks (70th Anniversary of the Kokoda Campaign), Insight Tours and new charity partners. It is shaping up to be our most adventurous year yet. While 2011 advent calendars are coming to an end, you can rest assured that our 2012 adventure calendar will be there waiting for all those wanting to challenge themselves in the New Year. We can take you to where you want to go and help you fulfill your fitness and fundraising goals in the process.

The year ahead is going to be our biggest yet. I want to end my last blog of the year with a huge thank you to each person who has ever done an Inspired Adventure for giving your time, commitment and fundraising for brilliant causes. This really does have to be one of the most exciting and fulfilling ways to fundraise there is!

And finally a huge ‘thank you’ to the Inspired team. Belinda, Kyle, Nadia, Helen, Sophie, Hannah and Kristen you are an exceptional team. Thank you all for another great year, your enthusiasm, commitment and professionalism is second to none.

Roll on 2012!

Justine

302 people raised over $1.7 million for our charity partners in 2011

★ LAOS  ★ CAMBODIA  ★ VIETNAM 

“Across the world, girls face double discrimination due to their gender and age, leaving them at the bottom of

the social ladder.” Plan

With 2012 just around the corner it is hard to believe that girls around the world still find themselves at the bottom of the social ladder. Research shows that:

• girls are more likely to be forced into the sex trade;
• more likely to suffer from malnutrition;
• more likely to become infected with HIV;
• more likely to be subjected to intimidation and violence and
• more likely to be forced into marriage at an early age.

Our good friends at Plan have been working hard to address these issues and are empowering women and girls all over the world to overcome poverty.

In July 2012, Plan brings you the Asia Insight Tour – an inspired adventure like no other. Differing from our other trips, the Plan Asia Insight Tour has no challenging physical component. The trip has been exclusively designed to allow participants to engage with their experience on a deeper level and immerse themselves in the cultural and community development aspects of the trip. This is a very unique opportunity to go behind the scenes and off the tourist trail to see firsthand how Plan helps communities address gender inequality facing young girls and women.

The Asia Insight Tour follows on the success of the Plan Trek Nepal. In May 2011, 13 people trekked the Himalayas to raise over $53,000 for Plan. Inspired Adventures and Plan have teamed up again in 2012 to offer you a rare adventure that will take you right down to the grassroots level where Plan does its most important work. You will be taken to Southeast Asia’s most and least visited areas and your heart and mind will work overtime when you talk directly with community project participants as you acquaint yourself with Plan’s projects.

The Asia Insight Tour encapsulates everything that you could ask for in a unique travel experience – a rare insight into communities and the impact of grassroots projects implemented by one of the oldest and largest children’s development organisations in the world.

Inspired Adventures fully supports Plan’s commitment to investing in girls in order to break the poverty cycle and we are excited to be able to offer this tour with a difference in 2012.

As a Mum to a beautiful 3-year-old girl, with many exciting opportunities ahead of her, it is unbelievable that many girls around the world are so suppressed and have very little opportunity available to them to have a good life. Many of us naturally take education, healthcare and the support of a loving family for granted.

Our ability to make a difference to these girls’ lives starts with knowledge and insight. That is, getting a clear understanding about the problems that they face and how we can effect change.

Justine

♀ More information on Plan’s campaign to fight gender inequality

♀ Find out more about the Plan Asia Insight Tour

♀ Read more from Justine’s Corner

Our first Inspired Adventure

Saturday 10 December is International Human Rights Day. It marks the 63^rd anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is also an important day for us as the impetus to launch Inspired Adventures came about after a chance meeting with a Tibetan monk who had suffered many human rights abuses. When we met him, he was living in exile in Dharamsala, India.

Palden Gyatso’s story was moving. His determination, resolve and simplicity invoked an epiphany within that could not be ignored. From that chance meeting, Inspired Adventures was born.

“The human body can bear immeasurable pain and yet recover. Wounds can heal. But once your spirit is broken, everything falls apart.”  Palden Gyatso 

It made sense that our first adventure was the “Trek for Tibet” for the Australia Tibet Council, an organisation working hard to promote the ‘human rights and democratic freedoms of the Tibetan people’. In November 2005, I took a group of 19 people to the home of the Dalai Lama and together we trekked through the Indian Himalayas to raise money almost $40,000 for the Australia Tibet Council. Although each and every trip that Inspired Adventures has organised, this first trip was very dear to me and became the motivation to keep on keeping on.

Recently, Inspired Adventures has teamed up with Amnesty International Australia. Amnesty fights hard against injustice and is a staunch defender of human rights abuses.  They campaign on violence against women, promote the rights of Indigenous peoples, defend the rights of refugees and demand dignity using human rights as the key to releasing people from the trap of poverty.

Inspired Adventures isn’t just about raising funds for our charity partners. Every step of the way we are championing the cause of each and every partner. Our causes are diverse and range from defending human rights to working towards a cure for cancer and other diseases; raising awareness of SIDS and promoting disability inclusion as well as rebuilding the lives of youth in crisis and putting an end to animal cruelty. Every day we are working with participants who are doing incredible things for our charity partners. We know that none of these problems can be solved overnight. However we do believe that together we can all make a difference.

Justine

Trek for Tibet 2005

HUMAN RIGHTS AND YOU…

• Find out more about Palden Gyatso…

• Learn about the work of the Australia Tibet Council and find out what the Tibetan community in Australia are doing on 10 December.

• Join the Kilimanjaro Challenge and help Amnesty International Australia defend human rights abuses.

• Read the Universal Declaration on Human Rights

Belinda and Justine at the new cancer research centre

At the end of November, Belinda and I travelled to South Australia for meetings with some of our charity partners.

During this visit we had the privilege of seeing the new Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer and the much-anticipated LIVESTRONG™ Cancer Research Centre that are both currently under construction. The visit was timely as 37 inspired people had just completed a 415km cycle around Vietnam and had raised over $185,000 for Flinders Medical Centre Foundation (FMCF) in the process.

Standing in hardhats and seeing this new $28 million dollar building come together with my own eyes was an amazing feeling. I felt the devotion, dedication and energy that our participants put into their fundraising efforts wash over me. I was in awe at the amazing work our charity partner, Flinders, is doing for cancer research. The pieces were all coming together.

This is what Inspired Adventures is really about. This is the feeling you get when you are able to enjoy the fruit of past labour. The seed that I planted all those years ago has sprouted into a unique fundraising tool that links the three things I am most passionate about: charity, adventure travel and empowering people from all walks of life to embark on life-changing experiences.

Those 37 people who took on the cycling challenge in Vietnam became known as ‘Team Flinders’. They wore the title with pride and each and every one of them had very personal reasons for taking on the dual-feat of a long-distance cycling adventure and a fundraising challenge for cancer.

Today I felt nothing but pride – pride in the individual achievements of each and every one of our participants and pride in the creation of what is undoubtedly set to be the best new cancer centre in Australia. The Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer is going to transform the way that care is delivered to cancer patients – from impersonal to personal, and from purely clinical to a more holistic and positive experience.

What struck my colleague Belinda the most was the dedication to creating a positive atmosphere to combat and overcome cancer.

“It wasn’t like walking into a hospital at all – it was more like walking into a hotel. One of the biggest changes is that out-patients coming in to receive treatment won’t have to walk past people in bed bays to get to their chemotherapy. They walk into a beautifully designed clinic that has been tailor made to make their treatment more personal, more humane and certainly more uplifting.”

For me it was the amount of light within the building – it was just a really beautiful space that emitted a positive atmosphere. More than that, this centre will be home to researchers who are working on groundbreaking and innovative new cancer treatments as well as intervention measures aimed at ‘halting the process before it becomes clinically apparent and a major burden on the community’.

This was all mind-blowing to see as I quietly envisioned the completed centre in my head.

The recent Vietnam Cycling Challenge was the third trip that Inspired Adventures and Flinders Medical Centre Foundation have teamed up on. We are very pleased to be working with Flinders in 2012 as they tackle Borneo for Breast Cancer in March and undertake the Great Wall of China Cancer Challenge in April.

Stay tuned for more news on Flinders Medical Centre Foundation and the inspirational phenomenon that has become known as ‘Team Flinders’.

Cycling for Flinders (November 2011)