Back in the day, I went to school with Mick Rodgers and we raced together at the Energy Breakthrough. He’s been teaching at Warracknabeal for a few years now and it brings a smile to my face to see him leading the next generation of participants and to see the enthusiasm take hold. I caught up with him to see how his year has progressed.

“This year has been a real boost in the school community realizing that the Energy Breakthrough is not a passing phase”, Mick told me recently, “This year we have dug way deeper into the culture of the Breakthrough and inspired by Damascus's Sesame Street mascots of 2008 - we decided to develop our own.”

Milky Joe & Toastay
“The mascots are fairly original, one is a coconut called 'Milky Joe'. He is based on a character from a TV series called ‘The Mighty Boosh’.

Also we have 'Toastay' pronounced 'toes-tay'. 'Toastay' is a very angry piece of toast that is on fire and moving fast due to the flames on his behind.

We have pit crew members nominated to dress up in our mascot costumes mainly for the Display and Presentation element.You’ll be able to see Milky Joe & Toastay on the RACV Stage on Saturday arvo.

… And the vehicles?
"We have stiffened things up by constructing a full corflute canopy. You may notice that some of the cuts are a little wonky and the paint work has a little over spray but that’s because the students made it under the watchful eye of an art teacher. We aren't engineers but we have a hoard of fun putting our trikes together."
Toastay is on the left below, and Milky Joe on the right.

Curriculum Integration
"This year we have also been able to integrate many aspects of the Breakthrough directly into the curriculum. For example the mascot costumes are made in class by middle school students, canopies are constructed by year 11 VCD students and vehicle servicing is completed by mechanical repairs middle school students.
We print our own t-shirts and have branched out to include a few hoodies as well this year too."

Getting fit for the challenge
"We have made sets of rollers for the trikes to train on and also put together some reclined trainers, we are able to have 4 students at a time training. This happens mostly during lunch times.

We are also running a little competition amongst ourselves, who can go the furthurest distance with the trainer on its hardest setting in 2 minutes....it is pretty tough!"

"So overall, this year is going to be a big one for us
I hope everyone catches a glimpse of the crazy Warracknabeal crew. Feel free to drop by and have a chat with us!"

You may remember we also caught up from the Warracknabeal team earlier this year and in late 2008: