By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
IRMA Zimmermann of Lyndhurst was desperate to get out of the daily grind and make a difference.
So keen was she that the web designer signed up for a 500-kilometre, five-day charity bike trek in Thailand next February – despite not owning a bike.
“At that stage, I didn’t even cycle. I didn’t know where to start,” she said.
“I said I’d just figure it out as I go along.”
The spur-of-the-moment commitment came during a work seminar, hearing about the good deeds of charity Hands Across The Water which is staging the bike ride to raise money for tsunami-stricken orphans in Thailand.
Since then she has trained alongside her husband Oliver on bikes donated by Sealy’s Cycles.
The pair will ride the trek together, pledging to raise $10,000 between them for the cause.
Ms Zimmermann said she was building up her training distances in preparation for Thailand’s humidity.
“You have to get used to sitting on that seat for a long distance,” she said.
“You need that ‘butt of steel’.”
During the trek, the couple’s teenage daughters Gita and Tiana will volunteer at Baa Tharn Namchai orphanage.
“I’m just at that stage of life where I want to do something significant,” Ms Zimmermann said.
“We decided to do this as a family.”
Ms Zimmerman said she had been shocked by the unrepaired water damage wrought by the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami on a visit to Thailand last year.
“There are children after the tsunami without families. It’s a long-term thing. It doesn’t go away.
“Seeing children being exploited by sex slavery with no other means, it sat with me. I felt I had to do something.
“Children don’t deserve to be in that sort of situation.”
It is hoped that February’s bike ride will raise $400,000 for two new orphanages – housing, schooling and caring for up to 100 children.
“It doesn’t take much to get children out (of the streets),” Ms Zimmermann said.
“About $300 will fund a child in an orphanage.”
Hands Across the Water has come into recent prominence for raising about $250,000 to care for surrogate baby Gammy who was allegedly abandoned in Thailand by an Australian couple.
It was founded by former Australian Federal Police forensic specialist Peter Baines who helped identify victims of the tsunami.
His charity pledges to put 100 per cent of proceeds to help Thai children.
Ms Zimmermann is inspired by Mr Baines’s example.
“It’s incredible. You wonder how people do that stuff.”
To donate to Irma and Oliver, go to http://bit.ly/1ub42ln or http://bit.ly/1vqg24A
For details visit handsacrossthewater.org.au.
