IT took 12 hours and 32 minutes, 102,876 steps and five changes of shoes, but Southern Cross’ Scott Guerini, 8, completed his 42 kilometre ‘Scott’s Marathon for Telethon’ on Saturday, July 19.
Scott completed his fifth and longest annual walk from out the Koolyanobbing Road into Southern Cross recreation centre, raising more than $7000 this year and taking the total his walks have raised for Telethon well past $50,000.
This year he started an hour before sunrise, 1.5 kilometres north east of the emu fence and walked with his parents Nicole and Gary and his grandma and grand-dad Fay and Henry Bennett.
Just after sunrise they were joined by the works manager from the Cliffs iron ore mine at Koolyanobbing and seven mine employees.
They presented Scott with a giant cheque for $2500 and walked with him for 40 minutes, collecting rubbish along the roadside.
After lunch at the family farm, about half way distance, Scott was joined by grandparents Joe and Joanne Guerini, his younger brother Damien and some cousins and various other relatives and friends.
About five kilometres out, just on dusk, he was joined by two Southern Cross police cars for an escort into town.
On the outskirts of town he was met by members of St John Ambulance Southern Cross branch who handed over donations they had collected.
Just when Scott was digging deep on the last hill to go past his great-grandmother’s house, members of the Southern Cross Football Club’s reserves team came out to walk with him and boosted his spirits.
He received a hero’s welcome from about 100 people waiting at the recreation centre where he sprayed a red, very well deserved Superman S on the grass to mark the end of another super effort by Scott.
