The Northern Beaches walk that’s changing the charity game

If you’re from the Northern Beaches, chances are you’re no stranger to a fun run. But the latest community event hitting the coastline isn’t asking you to race anywhere. In fact, the whole point is that you don’t.

STRYDE4 Day is an eight kilometre walk from Manly Lagoon Park along the Northern Beaches coastal walk, through Curl Curl Lagoon and then finishing at Harbord Diggers for a celebratory schooey.

Organiser and creator of the event Geoff Coombes, who previously founded cancer fundraising juggernaut Tour de Cure, has gone bigger this time around.

“This is about bringing us all together, supporting the causes that we care about, and doing it in a fun and uplifting way,” he says.

Along the route are 15 ‘activation zones’ that participants can stop at for some fun, wellbeing or competition. These range from ice baths in the back of utes, silent disco, bucket golf on the beach, swimming challenges, and a range of sporting activities. Sydney Swans legends Ty Keneally, Jared Crouch and Ryan O’Keefe are also set to make appearances on course. 

So yes, it’s not your average fun run, more of a walkathon, but not the kind you were dragged through in Year 7.

What really sets the day apart from other charity events is walkers have a variety of choices when it comes to choosing where their donated money is sent. The event supports nearly 30 charities spanning six sectors – mental health, cancer, indigenous, disability, families and the environment – and every single dollar raised goes directly to the cause.

 “100 per cent of the funds raised go directly to the charity,” Coombes says, “so this is 100% impact.”

Coombes came to the idea of STRYDE4 after years of watching big corporates mobilise their workforces around single-issue charity events.

“Tour de Cure is only for cancer, and I think I saw all these big corporates leaning into those events. And then I realised, what about the other 85 per cent of the population? Mental health, indigenous, disability.”

STRYDE4 Day is his answer to that gap; a single event that lets everyone find a cause they care about.

The charity is filled with a mix of larger and local organisations; Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter, Stewart House and LocalKind sitting alongside national names like Cerebral Palsy Alliance, CareFlight, OzHarvest and Gotcha4Life. 

Each charity has nominated a specific $10,000 high impact project, to ensure the fundraising isn’t going into a vague pool, but rather a passion project. Whether that’s funding cataract surgeries for Indigenous Australians, keeping Captain Starlight visiting sick kids at Sydney Children’s Hospital, or delivering over 1000 meals to people doing it tough on the Northern Beaches.

Now, we would be remiss to not inform you that the day of the event, May 19th, falls on a work day, Tuesday to be exact. It also so happens to land during National Volunteering Week, and Coombes has a frank pitch for participants to use on their employers; turn a business day, into a team bonding/charity day, “ask your boss, or be the boss that tells your people this is how we go and give back.”

Registration is open now at stryde4.com.au.

Walkers sign up behind their chosen charity and are encouraged to fundraise ahead of the day. Tickets are $105, however, the Manly Observer discount code, S4D-MO20, will cut the price in half.

The walk runs from 8:30am to 2pm, finishing, as most good things on the Northern Beaches do, at a pub.