Take a Hike

Take a Hike is an initiative that invites corporate, social and local identities to raise awareness and close the funding gap we experience across all AEIOU Foundation centres.

This year, Take a Hike is expanding across Queensland to be bigger and better than ever!  For the first time, we will host the event at the Gold Coast along with our annual hikes in Brisbane, Toowoomba, and Townsville in 2012.

How does the challenge work?

Spanning 40 kilometres over nine hours, our hikers will set out on this challenge to eliminate the funding deficit at AEIOU Foundation’s local centres and to raise awareness for children with autism. In 2011 our hikers raised an extraordinary $224,000 in total.  This year, we aim to increase our footprint with more participants and a goal to raise $300,000 across Queensland. That means each hiker will have an individual fundraising target of $3,000.

Take a Hike is not a race - participants start and finish as a group. Walking the distance is a challenge for anyone regardless of their fitness levels. To help hikers prepare for the challenge a pre event training program is provided. The program, delivered by Executive Excellence includes an eight week self-guided program with two supervised sessions per week to ensure all participates are well prepared.

How can you support the event?

All members of the community are welcome to join the hike either as an individual or as a corporate team of two or more. To express your interest in joining the hike in your city, contact AEIOU Foundation’s Major Gifts & Sponsorships Manager Michael Brazier or Relationships & Events Manager Jemma Riding and email events@aeiou.org.au. AEIOU will create a personal profile on the Take a Hike event page here on the website to help you reach your contacts and fundraise.

If hiking is not your forte but you would like to support the initiative, you can donate to one of our Take a Hike participants to help them reach their fundraising goal. Donations to individual hikers can be made by clicking the destination button in the right-hand banner to view hiker profiles and fundraising tally.