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| Wayne Brundell, Senior Manager at Facilities and Services Division after he flew down the Freeze MND Ice Slide at Monash Sport's Friday Night Freeze. Photo by Matthew Bass. |
The Monash community have come together to raise
over $12,000 for the Cure MND Foundation at Monash Sport's Friday Night
Freeze, part of Monash University's Winter Festival.
In
an evening which drew approximately 4,000 staff, students and families,
the Friday Night Freeze included snow activities such as tobogganing
and snow-dodge ball, as well as a Monash Blues Amateur football match
and Melbourne Victory player zone.
The focal point of
the evening was raising money for the Cure MND Foundation. Participants
could register themselves to ride down an ice slide into a pool of
freezing cold water, earning donations in the weeks beforehand. This
follows the 'Big Freeze at the 'G' in Round 10 of the AFL Premiership
Season, which saw 11 football personalities ride down an ice slide in
front of a packed house at the MCG before the Collingwood vs Melbourne
match. A majority of donations for the Friday Night Freeze were
received online, and over $300 was collected from donation tins on the
night.
Director of Monash Sport, Brett Lavale, was
amazed by the success of the Friday Night Freeze in only its first year.
Last year Monash Sport ran an event called Friday Night Live, however
made changes to coincide with Monash University's first ever Winter
Festival.
"It was a fantastic, successful event, both from a participation
perspective and also from a quality of experience for the students and
the staff and the community members who attended the event. So we
estimated that we got about 4,000 people, or 4,000 sets of feet, attend
the event," Mr Lavale said.
"So the campus community division decided it was going to do a major
winter festival which ended up being called winterfest. And so Monash
Sport was keen to co-locate its Friday Night Live event, which was
started last year, with that festival and to enhance it and certainly
expand it, which proved really successful."
See video highlights from Friday Night Freeze here.
Unlike
the televised ice slide a few weeks ago, anyone could register for the
Friday Night Freeze Ice Slide and raise money, which resulted in a mix
of Monash Sport staff members, Monash Blues players and senior Monash
staff members.
"So a number of senior University staff went down the ice slide,
commencing with Martin Doulton, Director of Team MONASH. He was the
first down the slide, and he was followed by Vladimir Prpich, Executive
Director of Campus Community Division, and Vlad's wife Trisha Prpich,
who is the Director of Monash Residential Services. Bradley Williamson,
the Executive Director of Facilities and Services Division. And Wayne
Brundell, who is one of the Senior Managers over at Facilities and
Services Division," Mr Lavale said.
"And then we had a number of Monash Sport staff, Tania
Hetherington, Caroline Lawrence, Melanie Elston and Maria Barres, who went down the slide.
Also a number of Monash Blues Football Club players and past players
went down the slide which was really pleasing."
Fresh
off their Premiership and Championship wins, Melbourne Victory players
Fahid Ben Khalfallah, Kosta Barbarouses and Rashid Mahazi were signing
autographs and taking photos with fans beside a Victory shootout zone.
Being Melbourne born and bred, 23 year-old Mahazi knows Monash well.
"To
be honest I grew up around the corner from here, so I've been here
quite a bit. And I think when we weren't training at Gosch's Paddock
there was a period we trained here," he said.
Positioned
adjacent to the Freeze MND Ice Slide, the Melbourne Victory players had
the perfect view of the ice slide throughout the night.
"We were pretty amazed, it's quite a good cause. That's a really good thing they were doing down there," Mahazi said.
"And as well we're just enjoying being here, signing some things for the kids, meeting the families, it's a good night."
Cure
MND is a charity close to the Monash Blues Amateur Football Club. Mick
Rodger was a popular person around the club well beyond his playing
days, and was working to fight MND right up until his passing due to the
disease. The Monash Blues supported Mick all the way, and his legacy
proves to be very strong today, as Senior Coach Paul Groves, and players
Sam Baring, Andrew McGregor and Maddison Hardiman took the plunge down
the ice slide at halftime. Much to the enjoyment of their fellow team
mates watching on.
Other attractions on the night included a snowboard demo from the Monash
Uni Boardriders, bubble soccer, DJ, fire twirlers, foodtrucks,
fireworks and a football match under lights between the Monash Blues and
De La Salle Old Collegians Under 19 sides. Having fireworks pre-game
pumped up both teams, however the Monash Blues ran over the top of De La to
win by 71 points.
See video highlights from Friday Night Freeze here.
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| The toboggan run. |
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| Snow-Dodgeball |
