100 Things Bridge Climb

As you may know, on Saturday a group of 100 Things Campaigners converged in Sydney to tick off an item from their lists that each shared- to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

It started with Kerry, one of our amazing campaigners, commenting on the website that she’d always wanted to climb the bridge. An hour later, three people had replied all saying that they shared the same goals. The next day there was about 15 people all keen. A day later we decided it made sense to create an event.

As a whole it was a hugely successful event capped off with a perfect sunset viewed from the top of the bridge on Saturday evening. As the host, of sorts, it was an honor to be there too.

This event marked the second 100 Things event and for me it held such value as for the second time I got to meet and view complete strangers from around Australia come together as one based on nothing but the fact that they’d shared a thirst for life on the 100 Things website. I talk about this word ‘community’ a lot and on Saturday it became something tangible.
From witnessing such a positive outlook on life, to digesting the somewhat abstract fact that everyone involved was wearing a 100 Things T-Shirt (a shirt that previously I’ve only see one person wear; me!), the afternoon was in a way the next step for 100 Things- real and meaningful outcomes.

People Helping People

Now of course getting to the top of the bridge with the group was just awesome (specially for Bron who overcame a fear of heights in doing so), but for me there was a story that was even more powerful. This story belonged to Tania, a campaigner with a smile as big as the bridge itself.

Tania has lived with Spinabifida her entire life. A condition that has confined her to a wheelchair, Tania flew to Sydney knowing that although she would not be able to climb the bridge with the group due to the logistics of her wheelchair, she still wanted to cross the bridge, somehow. As she told us her predicament, moments before we had to leave her and climb the bridge ourselves, the group immediately offered their help. As with so many offers of help, the solution as we saw it was simple, we’d push her across the bridge via the pedestrian walkway. Simple, right?

Well as it happened it wasn’t. You see the next day when we met Tania at one end of the bridge, we found out that there was no wheelchair access to the pedestrian walkway. Instead, the only way to get up onto the walkway was by way of a 4 steep flights of stairs.

After a quick discussion amongst the group, consisting mainly of females, the issue had been overcome;

“Let’s just all lift her!”

Let me say that no matter how light the person, when you add the weight of a wheelchair, you soon found out that even 4 people struggle to lift the weight but after 15 minutes of scaling what felt like the Mount Everest of stairwells, we managed to get the ever-smiling Tania onto the bridge and together we shared a moment of success that still makes me smile as I type this. The next hour was spent pushing Tania from one end of the bridge to the other. We were able to help her dream become a reality!

Everybody on the planet has the ability to help someone out, and you’d be surprised at how little it takes.

People Helping People. This is the future of 100 Things. We all have the ability to help someone out.

100 Things Fundraiser

With campaigners from all over Australia coming to experience the bridge climb together, it was Kerry (the same campaigner who suggested the climb in the first place) who then suggested that we organize a cocktail evening that same night as a way of raising money for Camp Quality. How could I say no?

After months of planning, Kerry had not only enrolled the help of fellow campaigners but had booked a venue, designed a theme, collected dozens of items for an auction and even got a band to jazz the up the evening! It’s amazing what happens when you put your mind to something.

Fast forward to Saturday night and we all pitched up to our event completely unsure on what would happen. We’d all put in the hard yards so that at the very least we could hold our heads up high, but the unknowns remained; Would anybody turn up? Would people enjoy the night? Would any bid at the auction? Would the band turn up?

The event started at 7pm and by by 7.30pm the place was full! By 8.30pm i’d welcomed everybody and given a quick talk about the 100 Things journey and by 9.30pm everybody was up and dancing to the amazing band ‘Round the Corner’. The auction brought out some crazy bids and by the end of the night everyone was smiling. The event was a complete success.

For all the stats above, the one thing that touched me more than anything else was the feeling of love in the room. Now hear me out as I’m aware that the term ‘love’ could be taken out of context but the sense that everyone present embraced and enjoyed the ideas and philosophies hidden within the journey of 100 Things was something I’d not been confronted with in such magnitude. We were all one. I’m thankful to say that I receive hundreds of amazing emails a week from people sharing their positive thoughts on 100 Things but to be in a room where people were telling me in person of the positive ways in which their own lives had changed simply blew me away. It was overwhelming. People who I’d never met were now not only living more fulfilling lives due to creating their own lists but were going one step further and actually inspiring people around them. It was the best news I could have heard.

The ripple effect is happening.

Seventy-six people in total turned to the event and I think seventy-six people walked away quite moved by the experience. Kerry and the team did amazingly well and by the night’s end we’d raised over $2,000 for Camp Quality.

Simply awesome!

The Conclusion

I could write plenty more but i’ll do you a favor and stop here. The weekend was awesome on so many levels and more so than ever I can feel that something quite special is happening here.

I’m convinced that there’ll be plenty more 100 Things events and I think plenty more people will be become involved. It’s an exciting prospect!

100 Things… What’s on your list?