Village Voice News - Community - Men meet mountains

Three Vaucluse locals are undertaking a tough task this week - climb three volcanoes in 36 hours.

What started as a fundraising idea among the neighbours has turned into a full-scale excursion to New Zealand's North Island where Paul Tobin, Michael Brial and Mark Patterson have set themselves a gruelling challenge.

The driving force behind the adventure is Paul Tobin, chairman of Aussie Farmers Direct, a food home delivery business.

"We decided to do it as a fundraiser - the 3V Challenge - and set a goal of raising $100,000 for The Smith Family, which will help 300 disadvantaged Australian children get the most out of their education.

"We have about $60,000 raised, but would appreciate any donations to this cause through www.thesmithfamily.com.au," Mr Tobin said.

While the trio does not have any mountaineering experience, they have been in solid training for a few weeks and are all fit and determined.

They will scale Mount Tongariro, Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu - two of which are active volcanoes - on March 13 and 14, and aim to get as close to the summits as possible.

Mr Tobin hopes they will make it an annual event. He stressed they were funding their own trips, and that all donations would go to The Smith Family.

Stephen Gallagher, the charity's national event manager, said there are 700,000 disadvantaged children in Australia, and that 27,000 of them are students now receiving financial support from The Smith Family.