Students from Truro College arranged a Honduras themed evening meal ‘Una Noche en Honduras’. They held the event at an on-campus restaurant where food is prepared, cooked and served by Catering Diploma students, researching traditional Honduran recipes to serve on the evening. They were able to sell 45 tickets at £18 each to friends, family and college lecturers. As the event approached they quickly sold out, and with 45 as the maximum table number, were forced to turn people away. They also held a raffle on the night to boost profits and the event was a huge success, raising approximately £880!

Students at Thomas Rotherham College decided on a Race Night as their main findraising event. The students organised the venue, designed and printed tickets and visited a local shopping centre to request donations for a raffle on the night. They contacted Rotherham United and were given a signed football shirt to auction, and Sheffield United who donated a signed football. 120 tickets were sold, a very good effort from 7 students. The night was a tremendous success, with almost £1000 in profit on the night.

Kate was determined to raise the full cost her trip to Honduras in 2017, which she did with style! Her main event was a hugely successful motorbike festival that she organised with the help of her parents and their many biker contacts. The event was held on the school grounds and attracted the attention of local radio, and a number of local services who were eager to get involved. This alone raised £1500, which she topped up with a number of other events including a race night (£150), bag packing (£1300), a raffle (£100), a rifle range experience (£200) and a sponsored abseil (£350). She smashed her target and raised a total of £3600!

Harriet started by making a plan of how much she would need to raise towards her expedition and made a list of people who could assist her with sponsorship. All of her planning paid off and she raised a great amount through the following activities: raffle tickets £30, cake sales £94, grants and sponsorship £615, part time work £317, selling items on Ebay and Shpock £30, bag packing £73. We love the design Harriet made for her fundraising t-shirts and her college even printed them for free!

Merchant Taylors’ Boys School were active in their fundraising efforts, completing the Three Peaks Challenge as their main event. This involved hiking to the top of the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales (Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon respectively) in the space of 24 hours. They raised £2100 in sponsorship which, when added to funds raised from a school disco and a £500 donation from Formby parish church, made a final fundraising total of £3150!

The Dulwich College fundraising teams main event, with the assistance of their willing teachers, was a Pimms Tent held during their school summer fair. They organised a gazebo to house all of the Pimms, lemonade, fruit and ice that they needed for the day and were able to source most of the equipment they needed (e.g. jugs, knives and chopping boards) for free. Luckily, the weather was on their side and the event was a great success with many, many return customers throughout the day! This event alone raised £1133 for their expedition to Ecuador!

Students from Hyndland Secondary School completed a range of fundraising activities to raise an incredible total of £5732. This included bag packing at their local Sainsburys, a quiz night and designing, printing  and selling a ‘Year of Young People’ school calendar. Their biggest event was a series of inspirational guest lectures, including one by Eilidh Doyle – Olympic medalist, captain of the British Athletics Team and Scotland’s most decorated track and field athlete of all time! Eilidh’s talk raised well over £1000 on the night, and she even stuck around to talk to offer our expeditioners advice on how to tackle the stresses of  physical exertion, being away from home and working as a team. Thank you, Eilidh!

Intellectually, physically and emotionally challenging – but a fantastic opportunity to learn real science (and geography) in fantastic places. It was great to see our students growing as a team and learning to get on with people from other countries and cultures. Thank you!

Excellent experience and learned lots from tremendously knowledgeable staff. Loved how passionate the staff were about their research.

I had an amazing time and the staff were so enthusiastic and motivational. There is no way to sum up my time here which could truly capture my experience. You just have to come and do it yourself!

Vamos! It was the trip of a lifetime and I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

The Honduras expedition provided an excellent insight into practical conservation. It was an experience that I gained so much from as it has highlighted to me the need for environmental protection, the expedition is something that I will remember forever!