DEMENTIA champion Nick Locandro will ride into Ballarat, having journeyed from Uluru, to finish a community walk with a difference.
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Locandro with fellow riders Jamie Huggett and Jarrod King set out from the Red Centre a fortnight ago in a bid to raise awareness for early on-set dementia. Their mission is to get people across Ballarat signing up and taking a 15-minute course to become a dementia friend, which he said was fundamentally about principles of patience, understanding and compassion.
- READ MORE about Locandro’s story here.
Their 2000-kilometre journey will finish at Lake Wendouree on Sunday, coinciding with the inaugural Compassion Walk.
Each step of the walk is about encouraging and inspiring people to better support each other.
Compassion Walk organisers have been humbled by the early public response with hundreds of people registering to get about the lake on Sunday morning.
Event organiser Stephanie Wong said seemingly little acts of kindness could make a big difference in someone else’s life and Compassion Walk was about celebrating and promoting this.
Ms Wong said Ballarat residents care for each other so well and the walk aimed to help further connect people to each other and to ways they can help others more, without becoming too overwhelmed themselves.
Locandro’s A Ride to Remember team and Compassion Walk organisers felt they were a good fit.
The walk, which sets out at 10.30am, will take participants on a lap of the lake with five key stop points along the way for practical activities. This includes a reading point with Ballarat Libraries, a spot to learn to paint, a listening exercise, woodwork with men’s shed volunteers and virtual reality experience of living with dementia.
Riders will arrive in the events precinct, near Pipers by the Lake, at 12.30pm.
There will be compassion talks, drumming and live music to promote connections and diversity.
City of Ballarat is taking steps to become a Compassionate City in a global movement to support physical, mental, emotional and social well-being.
Ms Wong’s work as a cardiac technician inspired her to create the event and in planning the event, she has met plenty more people who had shown her compassion.
The event starts near Pipers on Sunday, 10am.
More details, visit Compassion Ballarat on Facebook.
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