By Max Davies
Broadford Secondary College school captain Blake Inness is well on the way to making it to the United States of America, USA, later this year, where he hopes to compete in a series of cross country running races.
Sports Travel Australia offered Blake a place on a tour of the south-western United States after running a successful qualifying time at School Sport Victoria’s cross country state finals last year.
Since Blake’s story was first published in the Review in April this year, he has raised about $7000 of his $8000 target.
His fundraising has been supported by a range of family and friends, and groups including Assumption College, Broadford Secondary College, with fellow school captain Danielle Spratling and pathways manager Deb Hubbard, and a $1000 cheque from Kilmore Racing Club.
“The amount of support from everyone, including Kilmore Trackside, is just incredible and beyond what I thought,” Blake said.
“It’s really humbling, the amount of support is really incredible and I thank them very much for all that they’re doing.”
Initiatives to support Blake at Broadford Secondary College have included barbecues, crazy hair days and other fundraising activities to help him achieve his goal.
Blake said he had been training hard ahead of his trip to the United States, where he would race in four competitions against secondary school students from across the country.
“I’m feeling pretty good at the moment, I’ll continue to do a lot of training and maybe do a few races or marathons, we’ll see. I should be all good for America,” he said.
“I just really want to say thank you to Kilmore Trackside and everyone else that’s come together to help me and support me.
“It’s incredible and amazing, and I’m really thankful for everyone and what they’ve done.”
Kilmore Racing Club marketing and partnerships manager Lindsey Melis said the club was more than happy to support Blake’s dream to compete in the United States.
“We’re all about community and supporting our community as much as possible, whether it’s just a single person with dreams who’s inspiring other young students to go down the same path, or a larger community group,” she said.
“For us it was a no-brainer. It is an amazing effort by Blake to get himself to where he is now and why should it stop? We would love to see someone in our local community represented in the US and we’re happy to do what we can to help get him there.”
