Schoolies trek to raise money
ALEXI Piovano and Adam Hegedus, two school-leavers from Waverley College in Sydney, have walked from Bondi to Byron in 20 days - about 800km - to raise $18,500 to build schools in Timor L'este.
Calling themselves Schoolies for Schooling, the duo was welcomed to Byron last Saturday with a pool party and seafood barbecue, compliments of Fishheads, to celebrate their arrival.
Other Byron businesses - including The Beach Hotel, The Roadhouse and Mr Vintage - got behind the pair, with Cheeky Monkeys hosting an 18th birthday party for Adam.
Staff at Cheeky Monkeys also donated their tips from the past month to the boys' fundraising efforts.
The schoolies' walk was inspired by a school trip to Timor last year.
"Sometimes Schoolies can be seen as a negative thing," Adam said.
"We wanted to reclaim Schoolies as a celebration of all the hard work that goes into completing Year 12.
"It's about celebrating the beauty of education and how blessed we are to have it."
Setting off on November 7, the biggest problem for the pair was keeping up the motivation to walk for 10-15 hours per day.
"We ran out of songs to listen to and things to talk about," said Adam.
Alexi and Adam are still fundraising. To donate, go to www.gofundme.com/ schooliesforschool.
Byron Schoolies Hub co-ordinator Niqui Yazdi said there were about 6000 schoolies in town.
Police said the schoolies were "fairly well-behaved" at the weekend.
