CLIENTS COME FOR RIDE
For 31 years, the Great Endeavour Rally has been helping raise funds for the Endeavour Foundation to support its work to help clients with intellectual disability.
Every year, three clients get the chance to take part in the eight-day adventure, and this year Kristel Howe, Matthew Carlton-Smith and Jeffrey Rogers were the lucky three who got to join the 150 competitors on the 3200km journey.
“Nathan rang me on a Wednesday then I found out the next day I was going to be on the rally,” Kristel said.
“I was pretty excited, I rang up my dad because I was too excited. It’s my first time doing something like this, it’s really
great.” It was also Matthew and Jeffrey’s first time on a rally like this, and they both said they had the time of their lives. “When I got picked I was very excited to come and meet new friends and people along the way, and I’m really proud of myself,” Jeffrey said.
“I’ve been having a lot of fun along the way. Quite often we have fun and jokes along the way, it’s been fun.”
The group not only got to have a chance to navigate for their team using the directions from the rally book, they got to ride in some of the other vehicles.
Endeavour support worker Ian Jones said the rally was a fantastic opportunity for the clients to take on something new.
“It’s about getting them out to see a lot of things they normally wouldn’t get to see, and also develop their independence a lot more, but also it gets them to work as a team,” he said.
“It also means a lot to the fundraisers, the guys raising the funds and driving the cars because they get to see who they’re doing the work for.
“(The clients) start out a little green, and it depends on the personalities, but within a couple of days they’ll very quickly come together and get into working together, but also they’ll get in the Troopy with us and talk a little about themselves and that sort of thing and we try and encourage them to get out and talk to other teams.”