The Gazette
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HOT STEPPERS: The teens will cross the desert to help out
A GROUP of fearless students will trek across the searing desert – before helping a remote community re-build itself.
Twenty youngsters from Linwood High School will be involved in the epic trek across Morocco’s Atlas Mountains and arid desert so they can reach a remote settlement in need of their aid.
But, before they even set foot in the country, they are facing a major fund raising battle to enable them to take part in the project.
They need to raise £1,500 each so they get properly fitted out with all the essential gear they’ll need.
Fund-raising events already in the pipeline include non-uniform days, baking sales and bag packing, with future events lined up including a fun run, a race night, a curry karaoke and a quiz night.
But all the hard penny raising will be worth it – as it’ll earn the youths the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime.
Embarking in summer 2013, they will spend two weeks in the North-African country, including a trek across the snow capped Atlas Mountains, before they reach a remote rural village where they will spend a week helping out by digging a well, building a classroom and renovating a building.
The trip is being organised by World Challenge, which runs similar trips for schools all over the world.
The aim is for the kids to raise at least 80 per cent of the money they need through fund-raising events – so that they can help build team spirit.
Throughout their adventure, the youngsters will be accompanied by guidance teacher Linda Hamilton and PE teacher Gordian Mothersole (spelling of name checked).
Linda said: “The kids are running the whole thing and organising their own meetings.
“The teachers are there just in a supervisory role, just in case something goes wrong. They have been sorting out their own budgets and organising the fund-raising and what they are going to be doing when they are out there.
“The one thing that has caused a problem is that they are not allowed to take their mobile phones – that has caused a bit of an uproar!
“But they will have a satellite phone and the point of the trip is to build their team working skills and their independence.”
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