162-Soldier On
Show notes
If you are in the armed services, you will be familiar with the Soldier On organisation. However, if you’ve never had family or friends in the military you may never have heard of them. Soldier On’s mission is to enable veterans and their families to thrive and they do this by offering a holistic and integrated set of services to Defence personnel, veterans and their families.
While this may seem to be an odd interview for a hiking podcast, you may be surprised to learn that one of the programs offered by Soldier On, March On, is all about doing hikes of varying lengths.
In this week’s episode we catch up with Soldier On CEO, Ivan Slavich to find out about this organisation and their March On program.
Podcast overview
In this episode we talk to Ivan Slavich, CEO of Soldier on:
- Introduction
- Solider on and Ivan’s role (time index 00:01:24)
- Supporting veterans and their families to thrive
- Impact of COVID (time index 00:01:25)
- Social connection
- With COVID online presence has become more important
- March on program (time index 00:08:45)
- 96km (the distance of Kokoda Track)
- March each year
- 3 options
- Option 1:You Challenge
- Choose your on adventure
- Option 2: Mountain Challenge
- Ten summits within Kosciusko National Park
- Option 2: Pinnacle Challenge
- Walk Kokoda Track, next trip 2022
- Fund raising but also about getting people out and about into nature
- Option 1:You Challenge
- Bert Le-Merton (time index 00:14:55)
- 101 years young, patron of March On and an active participant
- Help support Bert in his fundraising
- Benefits of hiking (time index 00:19:43)
- A luxury choice
- For those that want the experience without all the dirt
- Ivans hiking background (time index 00:22:15)
- Fitness
- A challenge
- The views
- Tim and Gill’s final thoughts (time index 00:28:14)
Close (time index 00:37:47)
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Ivan Slavich Soldier on CEO
At 101 years young, Bert Le-Merton is a true living legend. His bravery and sacrifice during World War 2 is admirable to say the least, all in the name of defending our “sunburnt country, and land of sweeping plains”.
His family have followed suit, with his children and grandchildren also defending our nation and communities on the frontline. It is clear that his passion for supporting our current and future generation of veterans and their families is close to his heart – and this is why he has chosen to invite you on this journey to support March On with Soldier On.
March On 2021. for more information listen to this podcast or go to the Soldier On website here
Soldier On
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