The Winchelsea Health Club has completed close to 80,000 push-ups to raise money for mental health awareness.
The team of 29 members and trainers completed 80,631 push-ups in 23 days and raised $2,690 for Lifeline Geelong as part of this year’s Push-Up Challenge to support the mental health service.
Winchelsea Health Club health and wellness team leader Darren Burgess said the challenge “wasn’t easy”, but the team was motivated knowing that the money was going towards helping people.
“It was a great personal challenge while also being a way to give back to the community,” he said.
“We started off doing 75 push-ups on the first day, and by the end, we were averaging around 220.
“One of our teammates couldn’t do five push ups on her toes when we started but she was easily doing 20 by the end of the month.”
All participants in the Push-Up Challenge were tasked with completing it across the first 23 days of June, spotlighting the tragic number of lives lost to suicide in Australia in 2021.
Winchelsea Health Club more than doubled the Push-Up Challenge’s goal of 3,144 push-ups during the first 23 days of June to raise awareness of the number of Australian suicide deaths in 2021.
Surf Coast Shire Councillor Adrian Schonfelder thanked the club for raising money and awareness of the importance of mental health services.
“I want to congratulate the members of the Winchelsea Health Club on their incredible achievement,” he said.
“I hope they’ve all treated themselves to a good long soak in the bath afterwards.”
The Push-Up Challenge has raised close to $15 million for mental health services this year, with more than 314 million push-ups completed nationwide.
