Elite: Benalla’s Natalia-Drew Cole is a talented para-canoeist.
Photo by
Simon Ruppert
Benalla’s Natalia-Drew Cole is the youngest para-canoeist currently competing on the national scene.
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She is so talented that she has just been named on the Victorian team for the Paddle Australia Canoe Sprint National Championships in Sydney.
However, in order to take part in that event, held during Easter, she needs to raise money.
In training: Natalia Drew Cole on the water.
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Contributed
So with some help from her mum, Brooke Manley Cole, she has been doing all she can to do just that.
Hard work: Natalia Drew Cole is aimong to compete less than nine months after undergoing spinal surgery.
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Contributed
Her fundraising kicked off at the weekend, with sausage sizzles in the Woolworths car park on Saturday and Monday.
She has also been collecting cans for cash.
However, with the news she was selected for the competition still relatively new, and the fundraising effort only starting recently, she still has a long way to go.
“We need to raise between $5000 and $6000 to get her, and her boat, up to Sydney,” Mrs Manley Cole said.
“Up to this point we have raised about $450 from the cans and sausage sizzles.
“So we still need to raise a lot of money to get her to the event.”
Mrs Manley Cole and Natalia-Drew will be holding sausage sizzles in the Woolworths Benalla car park on the weekend of Saturday, March 19.
Natalia-Drew is competing the following weekend, but the duo will return with more sausage sizzle fundraisers on April 2 and April 9.
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