Walking for Willow Place

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This article was published 13/01/2020 (2313 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When it comes to helping others, Nicole Hacault believes in blazing a trail.

The River Park South resident is a realtor with Royal LePage Top Producers Real Estate, and she was among a contingent that spent “a life-changing” six days in Morocco late last year walking in the Sahara Desert representing the company’s non-profit shelter foundation, which advocates for women and children escaping domestic abuse.

The walking group was comprised of 120 individuals across Canada, which were broken down into groups of 30, Hacault said, noting she walked 118 kilometres during the trip. Having always been a keen walker, and having trained specifically for the trip months in advance, the married mother of two said the accomplishment turned out to be more manageable than she thought.

“I actually only ended up with one little blister,” Facault said, adding the North African temperatures varied a fair bit during the day and the night.

“It was around 30 degrees during the day, and at night we slept in tents when it could get down to five degrees. One minute you could be wearing a T-shirt, and then you could be wearing a toque.”

Another interesting aspect of the trip, Hacault said, was not being able to use technology, such as cellphones, which turned out to be an empowering experience.

“Being a group of realtors, we’re probably extra-addicted to technology, so to not be able to get any cellphone reception actually felt really good,” she said.

On some levels, Hacault said the adventure — in retrospect — was tailor-made for her character and personality.

“I’m a proactive person and very adventurous and not a lot of things scare me, so it was right up my alley,” Hacault said, noting that her future bucket list includes trips to destinations such as the Himalayas and the Great Wall of China. “As well, we were really getting immersed in the culture there and doing things that many tourists don’t do, which included walking among nomads. There were no roads.”  

On other levels, Hacault — who is also on the parent advisory council at her son’s school and is the volunteer director of the River Park South Community Association — said a massive part of the trip and fundraising was to not only help the community, but also set an example to her children, who are aged three and six.

“That’s a huge part of it. The older one gets, I feel it’s so important to try and be the difference and help people,” she said, adding her son was motivated to organize a fundraiser for Siloam Mission with his classmates.

In the end, 80 per cent of what Hacault personally raised stayed in Winnipeg and was donated to Willow Place, and 20 per cent was shared collectively to support domestic violence prevention.