Taking to the streets, or in this case the river bank, for their Community Challenge, 9CRNW gave real meaning to their I AM HOPE cause.

The Crofties' Critters class decided that for the community service part of our Stars Programme we would complete a 12-hour challenge. We wanted to use this opportunity to raise money for I AM HOPE. I AM HOPE is a charity founded by Mike King. Their mission is to raise awareness in youth that self-doubt and overthinking is a shared experience. They have enabled free counselling for over 10,000 people. As a class, we voted for I AM HOPE because we have all experienced some sort of self-doubt, overthinking or mental illness and we wanted more teens/youth to have access to free counselling.

Our base for the challenge was the car park on Nelson St. We would walk the 1.1km loop that was from the green bridge by the car park to the next green bridge further down Nelson St. To do that for 12 hours was a challenge by itself, but to make it even harder we decided to walk the loop three-legged. Also, every couple of hours we blindfolded people and their peers lead them around the course. This symbolized the struggles of feeling isolated and trapped, unable to talk to anyone about your mental health.

The loop that the Crofties Critters walked.

Although it was raining, we began our challenge at 6am. We completed the first lap together three-legged and then separated into two groups. This allowed for one group to rest and participate in various activities like games, rollerskating, loom bands and colouring-in while the other walked the loop. Then we had the idea to stand by the side of the road and encourage passing cars to honk at us. It was heaps of fun, people were holding signs, yelling and miming honking a horn.

At 6pm we finished the challenge. Similar to the first lap of the day, we all walked the last lap three-legged as a class. Everyone was exhausted but agreed that it was definitely worth it because together we had raised $3,184 for I AM HOPE. This means more people can have access to free counselling and many more people are aware of this charity and what it does for us and the wider community.

A huge thanks to Gemma, our Star Mentors, Miss Croft and all of the people that donated money to our cause.

If you would like to donate to I AM HOPE you can follow this link: https://www.iamhope.org.nz/donate