Stepping Together for Little Treasures: Walk for Prems 2025
Walk for Prems is the largest annual fundraising event organised by Life’s Little Treasures Foundation (LLTF) - Australia’s leading charity dedicated to supporting families of babies born premature or sick.
LLTF’s mission is to ensure every family facing the challenges of a premature or sick baby has access to vital information, resources, and a supportive community. Their services extend from hospital neonatal and special care units to the home, providing ongoing care and connection.
This year, LLTF celebrated their 20th anniversary of supporting families! To honour this achievement, they launched the “Mighty Trek Challenge” as part of Walk for Prems – a new fundraising initiative where participants push a NICU incubator over a 900 km route from Sydney to Melbourne. The LLTF team stopped at 20 selected locations throughout October, as a demonstration of the “journey” families of premmies face.
Once again, we were proud at Aspire Early Education to be a sponsor of Walk for Prems and show our support for families who need it most. With Aspire centres in Bendigo, Ballarat and Melbourne, our teams came together and joined the Walk for Prems events across these locations during October.
Learn more about these wonderful events and how each community came together to support LLTF.
After a successful event the last couple two years, the Bendigo community gathered again at Lake Weeroona on October 19th to support LLTF’s and their Walk for Prems – Mighty Trek challenge. Before enjoying a family-friendly walk around Lake Weeroona, the children enjoyed fun activities, food trucks, face painting, a jumping castle, and a cheerleading performance from Bendigo’s Dynamic Cheer Co.
Our Aspire Bendigo team set up an Aspire stall at the event and ran sensory play activities, and arts and crafts activities for children to enjoy. Before everyone gathered to the start line for the walk, the LLTF team shared heartfelt speeches about the importance of the day and its meaning for families who have lost their baby or faced challenging journeys with premature birth. The community then walked together around the lake together, pushing the incubator to help reach the goal of 900km.
It was a wonderful morning and we are thankful to our Aspire Bendigo team for being part of the day.
This year was the first time our Aspire team joined the Ballarat Walk for Prems event – with our brand-new Lucas Ballarat centre team supporting the cause. Taking place at Lake Wendouree in Ballarat on Saturday October 25th, it was a wonderful morning of family entertainment, children’s activities, face painting, a jumping castle and yummy food trucks. Official proceedings then took place before the community walked around Lake Wendouree together, helping one another push the incubator.
It was a day filled with smiles, community spirit, and big hearts coming together for a wonderful cause. We’re so proud of our Lucas team who showed their support on the day. As well as our children and families who walked to raise awareness and show support for the tiniest of fighters.
In typical Melbourne fashion, it was a rainy and wet Walk for Prems event in Melbourne on October 26th. However families still turned up and braved the weather to support LLTF and their community at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Aspire had a marquee stall at the event, with fun activities for the children. There were playdough activities, drawing and colouring pages, giant bubbles, stickers to take home and more! The activities were a hit with the children, who had fun getting messy with playdough and creative with their drawings.
Last month, our Aspire centres also held a drawing competition, where they created beautiful bookmarks for the Walk for Prems - Mighty Trek Challenge. Krisha from our wonderful Aspire Bella Estate centre won the competition with her beautiful bookmark drawing. These were printed out and were available for families at our Aspire stall to take home as a special gift. We are thankful for our centres who participated in this competition for a good cause.
The event was also packed with lots of other family fun activities. From face painting, sport activities, and photo booths, to delicious food trucks, everyone was energised and warm!
Before everyone gathered to the start line for the walk, the LLTF team shared heartfelt speeches, with some special guests. They also had a beautiful performance from a Melbourne choir, which added an extra touch of warmth to the morning.
Participants then gathered at the starting line for a walk around the stunning Royal Botanic Gardens. Although the rain was consistent, it was a wonderful sight of community spirit and support. Families and individuals also pushed the incubator along the way, even up the massive hill! Everyone was greeted with medals and smiles at the finish line - a perfect end to a meaningful day. Check out some of the highlights from the morning below!
We are so proud to support LLTF and the amazing work and resources they provide to families. If you’d like to learn more about Life’s Little Treasures Foundation, visit their website for more information.
