Beach realtors to take part in Cambodia trek for Royal LePage Shelter Foundation

By ALAN SHACKLETON

Local realtors Shea Warrington and Tory Brown will be trekking through Cambodia next month in support of the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation.

The Cambodia trek will see Warrington and Brown join Royal LePage realtors from across the country in a 100-kilometre hike in and around the city of Siem Reap before ending at the Angkor Wat religious shrine.

Once every two years, the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation holds an international trek for agents who want to participate and are able to commit to raising funds for the foundation. Warrington and Brown are realtors with Royal LePage Estate Realty in the Beach.

This will be Warrington’s first time taking part in the trek, and she is looking forward to it.

“It’s definitely going to be an experience,” she said. “We’ll be in tents. No proper bathrooms or beds, no showers.”

The trek will take place over five days with participants walking 20 kilometres a day through a variety of conditions. Some of the locations of past treks include the Sahara, Ecuador and British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains. Warrington said different treks have different challenges depending on what part of the world they take place in.

Dealing with heat and humidity of Cambodia is expected to be the biggest hurdle for participants in this year’s trek to overcome.

“There’s often an altitude and elevation challenge, but for our trekking in Cambodia it will be the heat,” she said. “It will be physically challenging on the body but also mentally challenging. The mental challenge is the biggest. Those who did the Sahara said it was the same landscape everyday and that was hard to endure. Here in Cambodia it will be jungle and pagodas, and it should be an interesting and diverse hike.”

Warrington has been preparing for the trek by hiking and walking a lot in the Beach and surrounding areas. In order to try and get used to doing activities in high heat and humidity conditions, she’s also been taking hot yoga classes.

However, she said one of her major challenges might have nothing to do with the climate. Warrington said she’s been made aware that the highest concentration of venomous snakes in the world is in Cambodia, not to mention spiders, and they will be sleeping in tents.

“They have the most venomous snakes of anywhere in the world in Cambodia and that’s a little bit horrifying, especially since we’ll be in a tent. I’ve been Googling how to deter spiders and snakes,” she said.

For Brown, this will be her second Royal LePage Shelter Foundation trek.

“In 2023 I participated in the Ecuador Challenge for Shelter where altitude was our biggest challenge. Trekking upwards of 20 kilometres a day, 3,000 metres above sea level and altitude sickness affecting many of my trek mates, all away from the comforts of home…Ecuador was a challenge but inspiring enough for me to sign up again for Cambodia,” she said.

However, given the importance of the cause, Brown said she is ready for the Cambodia Challenge for Shelter trek that starts on Oct. 22.

“Supporting the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation and in turn supporting our local women’s shelters and intimate partner prevention programs has been mission of mine for over 15 years,” said Brown. “As a single parent raising two kids, I know I am able to provide a safe and loving home for them, but knowing that there are women and children who don’t feel safe at home, is heartbreaking.”

Warrington said the importance of the cause motivates her not only for next month’s challenges but for every day she serves as a realtor.

“I just feel it’s so fitting for what we do for a living. I have four kids myself…It seems so unimaginable that you could have to flee domestic violence and live in fear for your life and the safety of your kids,” she said.

In 2024, Warrington was named Royal LePage Real Estate’s National Realtor of The Year. The award recognizes a Canadian realtor who shows exceptional work in and support of the community they live and do business in. For Warrington, a key focus of that work has been supporting the Shelter Foundation and helping women and families fleeing situations of domestic violence.

Along with taking part in next month’s trek, Warrington also donates a portion of every one of her real estate transactions to the foundation.

Both Brown and Warrington stressed all money raised from the Cambodia trek provides shelter for women and children, funds critical counselling programs and helps to break the cycle of family violence through education.

Warrington said Royal LePage has always been committed to this cause, and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Shelter Foundation at its recent national conference.

One of the fundraising efforts at the national conference is the auctioning off of an old coat that the winning agent gets to keep for a year. Warrington herself has bought the coat at past auctions, though not this year, and the bidding has gone as high as $22,000 for the winner.

She said such generosity is indicative of Royal LePage as a whole, and that the culture of giving and helping is especially strong at the Royal LePage Estate Realty office in the Beach. In 2023, Chris Dunlop (Owner and Broker of Record for Royal LePage Estate Realty) won the company’s Philanthropist of the Year Award.

Dunlop is also organizing the second annual Night Light Walk Toronto to raise funds for the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. The Night Light Walk takes place in the Beach, starting at Kew Gardens, and is set for Thursday, Oct. 23.

“It’s the company you keep,” said Warrington of the commitment of local realtors towards supporting local shelters.

For more information on Warrington and Brown’s trek please visit https://sheasellsboutique.com/ and/or the Tory Brown Team on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/torybrownteam/?hl=en