General News
21 November, 2022
Generations gather for Energy Breakthrough
While Energy Breakthrough (EB) brings in hundreds of students together to compete on the track, for one team the event is more personal — it is a family affair. Travelling up from Gippsland, three generations of Martin women from the Chairo...
While Energy Breakthrough (EB) brings in hundreds of students together to compete on the track, for one team the event is more personal — it is a family affair.
Travelling up from Gippsland, three generations of Martin women from the Chairo Christian School have made their way to EB for the past 20 years.
Leading the family tree, Annette Martin was the first to attend the event back in 2000 with just one team. Following in her steps, Annette’s oldest daughter Bethany Calway also graduated as a teacher and started bringing another team up to EB alongside her mother.
As the years raced by, the mother-daughter duo soon added another to the mix — Tessa Martin, Bethany’s sister, who first experienced the wonders of EB through the womb.
“I had Tessa quite late in life. I was at EB, 36 weeks pregnant, 40 years of age, in 40 degree heat, running around getting things done,” Annette said.
“And now of course Tessa is also training as a teacher and she’s managing her own team. So, we’ve all got a team each.”
This year, Annette had to introduce herself in various ways with different titles — some newer than the rest. Between ‘teacher’ and ‘mother’, she also became known as a grandmother to Bethany’s kids, Tilda and Juno Calway — the third branch of the family tree, also in attendance at the event.
“Tilda is only four and she’s been coming to EB for three years. As soon as she can reach the pedals, she'll be ready to roll,” Annette said.
“It’s a big family thing now. We’ve also planned weddings and events around it. My niece was thinking about getting married in November and we told her we’d all be up at the Breakthrough so she ended up having it at the very end of October.
“So we’ve been very committed to it. We’ll be here forever. I think I’ll be coming here in a wheelchair.”
Love for the program is instilled in the Martins at a young age according to the youngest daughter, Tessa.
“I just grew up loving it. It’s a really big thing for us,” she said.
“This is essentially our family holiday, like this is our big family event. We all love coming to it and apart from the three of us, the rest of the family also comes to watch.
“It’s a big deal because there’s so many elements to the event. Like, you’ve got the race, the presentations and the scrutiny. There’s also the camping bit and everyone loves that.”
The 19-year-old said that the sense of togetherness also goes beyond the family.
“For us, our teams have become our family too. So it feels like we have our extended family here as well,” Tessa said.
“That’s why I’ve been coming here for 16 years, I absolutely love it.”