Linda Beilharz - Biography
About me - a brief description
I am 42 years old, married and have two children. Michael turns 21 this year and Jeni is 18. I have lived in the Bendigo area for 20 years after growing up in Melbourne.
I have worked for St Luke’s for the past 5 years coordinating their community capacity building projects. St Luke’s is an innovative welfare agency that provides services to the most disadvantaged people in our community and runs prevention programs that strengthen disadvantaged communities. At work, and in my private life, I am committed to social justice, tolerance and equity.
I enjoy challenge of all sorts - intellectual, physical or mental – though not all ways at the one time. Sometimes challenges have been academic - I have completed various courses, the most recent being a Masters in Health Sciences. At other times challenge has been very functional – I built a bookshelf a few years ago and at another time built an island bench for my kitchen. Last year I gained my private pilot license, which tested my knowledge of physics and math’s and tested my ability to cope mentally with the demands of flying.
I seem to look for balance in my life – combining work, family, fitness, recreation and challenge. I have managed an active level of community participation – in local sporting teams, professional groups and community groups. I play 3 games of basketball or netball each week and train regularly at Evolution Sports and Fitness. I am the Coordinator of the Young Eagles group at the Bendigo Flying Club and an advisory group member of a Community Care Program.
My long-term love of adventure has seen me travelling overseas numerous times; trekking in Nepal (twice); travelling with friends in Uganda and Kenya; living in Argentina and Germany and visiting heaps of other places. I am a member of a women’s walking group that has undertaken a bush walk every year for the last 10 years. We have walked in Tasmania, South Australia and in many places throughout Victoria – along beaches, deserts and mountain ranges. I have also walked alone - undertaking solo bush walks in the Victorian high country.
I have tested my suitability for mountaineering by taking two courses over the past 12 months. I went to an introductory course in the Kosciusko area last winter and went on a technical mountaineering course in New Zealand in January this year. I loved both – developing a greater excitement about what mountaineering offers and a greater respect for the alpine environment and the experience required for independent climbing.
I aim to use my growing skills and experience for the benefit of my community. The mountaineering course will enhance my leadership skills and boost my value as a role model to others. I believe that I am ,in many respects, a very ordinary person with normal responsibilities, anxieties, joys and routines. I hope though, that I am able to inspire other ordinary people to follow their dreams, be strong, move out of the comfort zone and live life to the fullest.