Exercise fanatics in Wangaratta will learn how hard life is as an emergency volunteer when they take part in Wednesday’s “hero workout”.
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The Wear Orange Wednesday event is hosted by the State Emergency Service each year.
People are encouraged to show support in a simple, but highly visible, gesture by wearing the SES colour of orange.
The Wangaratta unit took that one step further this year.
Instead of just wearing the colour, they will get CrossFit enthusiasts to complete a workout that mirrors the lifting and other challenges they experience in the field.
Volunteers Carina Heppell and Daniel O’Brien are regulars at CrossFit and lost a combined 50 kilograms over the past year.
Ms Heppell said SES volunteers could have to carry heavy sandbags with a 25-kilogram backpack while wearing a heavy suit and steel boots.
“They can get a general idea of us as volunteers, how hard we have to work,” she said.
“It’s meant to push you to your absolute limits.”
It’s meant to push you to your absolute limits.
- Carina Heppell, Wangaratta SES volunteer
Hero workouts are used in CrossFit all over the world to honour emergency service workers who have been killed in the course of duty.
“It gives an individual or team the opportunity to see what it takes to serve and teaches them about hard work, discipline, leadership and team work,” Ms Heppell said.
“Wangaratta SES is very interested in building our relationships with members of the community and we are very grateful to this group of people who have decided to support us for this cause.”
CrossFit Wangaratta owner James Mawson said he took information provided by the Wangaratta volunteers to create a workout.
“It’s going to be tough,” he said.
It was developed in honour of a Victorian SES volunteer who died in Melbourne in 2003.
Mr Mawson said CrossFit was about a community exercising together so he wanted to help raise awareness of emergency services in the community.
Four sessions will run at CrossFit Wangaratta on Wednesday at 6am, 9:15am, 5:15pm and 6.30pm.
A collection tin will be available on the day for anyone wanting to donate to the Wangaratta SES unit.
“So come on down in your craziest orange and help support those that support you,” Ms Heppell said.
Volunteers were busy sandbagging and cleaning up damage during the start of Wangaratta’s storm season.
Ms Heppell asked residents to secure their properties if they heard a storm warning.
“We’ve had a couple of airborne trampolines in the past couple of storms,” Ms Heppell said.
“Anything that can fly, anchor down.”
