Janine Hayes did 30 skydives in one day to raise money for charity.By Emma Sun
IT’S a unique way to raise money, but jumping out of a plane 30 times in one day netted Janine Hayes about $6000 for charity.
The weather was picture perfect for the 51-year-old Commando Skydiver as she leapt out of the plane at almost 3000 feet between 9am and 4.15pm last Saturday.
Ms Hayes was celebrating her 30 years in skydiving – with more than 4000 jumps – and figured it would be a great excuse to make some money for a good cause. “I wasn’t going to do it because I could – it had to actually produce something for someone else,” she said.
She will be donating her money to the Gippsland Centenary Rotary House, which is a support facility for people in Gippsland, and also the Cancer Council of Victoria and Australia. Her support crew of family and friends cheered her on and watched as she flew across the sky.
Ms Hayes said that at one point, she was doing six jumps in the span of an hour and – coupled with the heat – that wasn’t too good for her stomach.
“It was a little bit warm and I got a little bit of motion sickness. There was a little while where I wasn’t very well but we persevered and finished the day.”
She had five parachutes of different colours and sizes that she used on the day and her team on the ground helped pack them as she did her jumps.
“I found different sorts of coloured parachutes, a pink one, rainbow coloured, green and blue one so everyone got to see the whole colours of the rainbow along the way,” Ms Hayes said.
She credited her team of helpers and supporters for helping her through the marathon achievement, which she said was a huge success.
“The biggest realisation for me was that it’s a team effort. No one ever gets any accolade no matter what they do as an individual without everyone else supporting them along the way.”
