The victory of success

The victory of success

Our new first year REEF participants arrived at Cottage by the Sea on Thursday.  This is the first of many camp experiences for this group from Bendigo who will have the opportunity to grow with the Cottage from grade six until they complete high school.

Lachie was curious about what the Cottage experience involved and was determined to make the most of his chance to visit.

The first challenge set for our new campers was to walk from the Pointt Lonsdale oval to the lighthouse and back. The tide was low, allowing the campers to walk along the beach, where Lachie loved investigating the little rock pools, writing in the sand and learning about the dangerous marine creatures.

Lachie showed a great commitment to the Camp Leaders instructions to learn about his fellow campers. He walked with new peers, played with different campers on the playground and ran around the lighthouse with others finding out what they wanted to wish for.

It was on the walk back the Lachie needed to show real courage to achieve success. He was tired, exhausted from all the physical activity and his feet were burning from taking so many steps on the walk. Lachie didn’t exercise much at home and often ignored his parents’ comments to be more active. However, on day one of camp he had set himself a goal when signing the REEF contract that he would always try his best to participate and complete all activities. Little did he know he would have to draw on his discipline to achieve this so early on in the camp.

It was with great persistence, determination and encouragement from other campers and the Cottage Camp Leaders that Lachie was able to continue moving forward and achieve success by finishing the walk. He was so excited that he had overcome this first challenge that he ran the last 150m!

We are very proud of the Lachie and his fellow REEF campers for setting great goals for the year ahead and they have shown us that they have the character to achieve these.

“The real value of setting goals is not the recognition or reward, it’s the person we become by finding the discipline, courage and commitment to achieve them.” (Heart of a fighter)