Werribee’s Peter Cullen has dedicated his life to helping people battling homelessness, poverty or mental illness.
In 1990, Mr Cullen founded not-for-profit organisation Reclink Australia to provide people experiencing disadvantage with access to sport and art programs.
He has since rolled out the organisation’s programs across the country with the help of federal government funding.
In May, Mr Cullen discovered that federal cuts meant the organisation would lose about $500,000, almost a quarter of its budget.
“We have had to pull back on a lot of our initiatives because we lost so much funding,’’ he said.
“It’s disappointing, because you spend a lot of time building up an organisation to support people … only to have this happen.”
To help make up for the lost funding, Mr Cullen is organising a fund-raising run beside the Werribee River.
He hopes to sign up 100 runners for the November 9 event, with each runner or team raising $500 for Reclink.
Participants can run a half, full or 60-kilometre ultra-marathon. For details, visit www.everydayhero.com.au/event/RunforReclink.
