Brad Sobott - PRD Whitsunday

BRAD Sobott is a man on a mission. On June 10, Mr Sobott will run a 42.2km marathon to raise awareness for the Whitsunday Coast Airport and hopefully secure a Sydney or Melbourne flight. The Airport to Airlie “awareathon” originally started as an office bet, between Mr Sobott and PRDWhit sunday CEO Robert Taylor. “There was a transaction taking place. I said it had been a marathon transaction and if it came off I’d have to run a marathon – and then I started thinking – what if I could do something good with this,” Mr Sobott said. “So, in an effort to raise awareness both locally and potentially nationally, I intend to run a 42 km marath on from the Whitsunday Coast Airport to the main street of Airlie Beach. Not as an event for other run ners to compete in [although support from friends and colleagues at different parts along the way will be welcome] but [as] a sole personal quest to show my passion to help the town I love,” he said. “I pledge to raise at least $42,000 which will be used to promote the awareness of this fantastic facility, which will no doubt bring more business opportunities, more flights and more people to the area.” Whitsunday Coast Airport business development manager Scott Waters said funds raised from the run, together with airport commercial incentives, PR from the event itself and the demonstration of the highest level of community support for a new interstate service, would form the key components of a regional incentive package to present to the airlines. “I loved the enthusiasm and the story behind it and thought what can we do to get this off the ground and that’s where the regional incentive package has now come in.What Brad is doing is demonstrating how much the community wants this,” Mr Waters said To make a donation go to http://www.airport2airlie.com.au