Suffolk Schools Fundraising Challenge 2011

Every school in Suffolk has been invited to participate in a unique and novel event.

It is a Kilimanjaro Challenge with the aim of enabling you to raise money for your school, and offering the chance to make a difference to a grassroots African development project too.

Stephen Wood, head teacher of Clifford Road Primary School said:

"What a superb idea. I can think of at least 6 of my staff who would be interested, and there will be loads of opportunities to involve the pupils".

Karl Pearce, head teacher of Earl Soham CP School said:

"I love the sound of this and it has fantastic possibilities".

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The idea

Every school in Suffolk has been invited to join a fundraising challenge. Every school can recruit/encourage/persuade as many people as they can to climb Kilimanjaro for them as a sponsored fundraising climb. 

A sponsored Kilimanjaro climb: Every person you can encourage to climb Kilimanjaro on your behalf will be asked to do this as a sponsored challenge. They need to pay for the climb and flights personally, then raise sponsorship for your school.  We'd recommend setting a minimum goal of £500, but you could decide to push for £1000 per climber if you prefer. 

Raising funds for your school: The primary objective is that this challenge will raise funds for your school.  In our experience climbers generally raise about £1000 per person, so there is potential for a lot of money to be generated for your school if you manage to encourage just a few climbers.

Donating to grassroots projects in Africa: We also hope that we can raise some much-needed income for some wonderful grassroots projects in Africa, rather than only raising money for the UK.  If your school would offer a percentage of any raised funds to The Tribes Foundation, we will ensure that this money is spent on some excellent projects.  The percentage is at your discretion. Please click here to see our charity pages for information on the projects we've backed and are currently raising money for.

Who does what?  Tribes will arrange all the logistics of the climb and deal with every climber as regards payments and information packs. Tribes will also provide regional slideshows to which you can invite prospective climbers so that they can work out if they think it is for them. The school is responsible for finding climbers through any means possible - ie by telling staff, parents and the local community. The school is also responsible for collecting the sponsorship money from the climbers.

 

The dates

There are two ways of joining this challenge:
1. Join the combined Suffolk schools climb dates
2. If you have 10 or more climbers (either from one school or a group of schools joining together) you can have a dedicated climb on any date you choose. If you choose this route, please call Tribes and discuss what dates you'd like.

Combined Suffolk schools climbs:
Easter climb:  9th April 2011
Summer climb:  25th July 2011

If demand requires it, we will add further dates.

NOTE: The Easter climb is in the rainy season. This means that the sections under the cloud canopy will be wet, however it is warmer. 
The summer climb will be drier and clearer but slightly colder.

 

Involving your pupils

Learning about Tanzania

Tanzania is a fascinating country with many aspects which would be of interest and educational use to children.

• LANDSCAPE: From the savannah of the Serengeti, to the heights Kilimanjaro and everything in between including soda lakes, active volcanoes, indigenous forest and of course a huge coastline and Indian Ocean islands. How is climate change affecting Kilimanjaro?  What is happening to the soda lakes?  Can the land feed its population here?
• CULTURE: There are over 120 different tribes in Tanzania. The Maasai are the most well-known tribe and would be a fascinating culture for children to learn about. Perhaps look into the effect of tourism on the tribe?
• CLIMATE: With a completely different climate pattern to our own (dry and rainy seasons) and many issues related to this climate (drought, soil erosion, fire), this is an excellent topic for many ages.
• WILDLIFE: One of the most fabulous places in the world for wildlife. Not just the 'big five' in the large reserves, but also chimpanzees and marine wildlife.  Conservation issues could be considered, as well as wildlife v community issues.
• CROPS & EXPORTS: Coffee is an important cash crop in Tanzania (especially around Kilimanjaro), but that is not all. Tea, sisal, and cashew nuts are all exported.  How have falling coffee price affected communities?

Make posters to find climbers

You will need to get the information out as soon as possible to teachers, friends, parents, grandparents about this challenge, so that they can start considering whether to participate.
Ask the children to make a poster or information flyers about this to spread the word as quickly as possible.
Once we have the regional slideshow venues and dates set (hopefully by 17th May), the posters could include this information too.
We can put up some or all of the posters as an exhibition at the slideshows in the relevant area.

Set up a blog

The children could set up a blog and write things about the challenge, such as information they discover about Tanzania, photos and biogs of their climbers, how fundraising is going etc.

Find out about getting fit & staying healthy

Climbing Kilimanjaro is a real challenge for the body. Climbers will need to get fit and know how to look after themselves on the mountain.
Your pupils could look into what might be the best way to get fit, what to eat on the mountain, and what kind of health issues there are in Tanzania (eg malaria) and what they might face as they climb higher (eg altitude sickness). There is even a need for a positive mental attitude by the climbers, so this too could be considered by the children.

Make a t-shirt competition

Why not get your pupils to have a competition to see who can make the best t-shirt design for your school's climbers? 
The design should be A4 size (no bigger) and can be anything they like.  It could be a t-shirt that climbers could wear when they reach the top of the mountain, bearing your school's name.
Tribes will print the winning t-shirt design for you and give a t-shirt to each of your school's climbers (plus another one for the winning designer). There is no minimum number - even if you are backing just one climber, we will still do this.
If you want to buy more of the winning t-shirts (perhaps to sell to people as part of fundraising?), they will cost a nominal £3 each.
[The t-shirts will be printed by local Suffolk print company, Doves of Earl Soham].

Make an information pack for the climbers

When climbers book a place on the challenge they will be sent an information pack by Tribes.
The information will include:

1. Destination information (general facts about Tanzania - money, climate, religion, food etc)
2. Kilimanjaro Information (information about Kilimanjaro - where it is, what its habitat is like, any wildlife ...)
3. The tribes who live in or near Kilimanjaro (about the Maasai and the Chagga).
4. Staying healthy in Tanzania
5. Packing list

Each school can submit one copy of each of the above fact sheets to Tribes. They need to be on A4, and may include drawings or images (non-copyrighted)

One winning version will be selected for each section, and will be included in the climbers' packs. The winning fact sheets will also be published on this site.

 

The timing

In order to make this work climbers need time to plan to get fit and time to raise money.  Therefore this challenge is planned for 2011.

In our experience, most climbers will need to be informed of the challenge before this summer term ends. This will give you (the school) you the best chance of attracting climbers.

Our rough planning schedule is therefore as follows:

21st April:  Letters and leaflets arrive from Tribes to all schools in Suffolk.
10th May:  Preferred deadline for schools to notify Tribes of their interest (no obligation).
17th May:  Tribes announces dates and venues for slideshow evenings in different parts of the county.  All schools can now start to invite possible climbers to find out more by attending these events (though climbers are not obliged to attend).
May/mid June:  Schools to decide which date they'd like to join (or both combined dates can be offered to climbers).  Dates for dedicated climbs for specific schools to be decided. 
Also, schools start to get students involved (eg. poster competition to tell parents and friends about the climb).
Throughout June/early July:  Slideshows.  Slideshow dates to be noted here once announced.
June onwards:  Climbers can start booking the climb.  We suggest that schools advise climbers contact Tribes directly.
Summer holidays:   Tribes will continue to take bookings from your climbers and deal with booking logisitics.
Autumn term:  Schools continue to let people know of their fundraising climb, and continue to get students involved (eg information packs, t-shirt competition, etc).  If any school wants further back-up from Tribes in the form of talks etc, please let us know and we'll do what we can for you.

 

Information for your climbers

We have set up a web page especially to give your cliimbers the information they will need to make their decision about joining this challenge.

www.tribes.co.uk/suffolk-kilimanjaro-climb

There is also a choice of letters which you can send to parents/friends to encourage initial interest.  Of course you may prefer to get your pupils to do this, so you don't have to use these.  (Pdf downloads)

1. Version with image
2. Version without image
3. Version without image plus reply form

In addition to the above, there is lots of information elsewhere on this site which climbers can access freely. 
Climbers are also welcome to call Tribes for help and advice at any time. We can help about all aspects of the challenge, however overseeing and encouraging the sponsorship/fundraising side of things is mostly the responsibility of the school.