Page 7 - Autumn 2018 Echo AVE

Claire Davidson competes in
the Otillo Swimrun Race

In September, Claire Davidson an English Teacher at the College, and her
husband, took part in the Otillo Swimrun race in Rheinsberg, Germany. the
‘Otillo’ is a series of races all over europe. It is a simple format: you race with a
partner from point A to point B, running and swimming in rotation, until you cross
the finish-line.
Claire explained, “whatever you take at the start, you must finish with, and you
are tethered to your partner by a bungee to stay no more than 10m away
throughout the race. this means you must run with your wetsuit on, and swim
with your running shoes.
the event itself – the 17km ‘sprint’ for us – was the most fabulous experience. All
the swims were in gorgeous mirror-smooth lakes, and the runs were on trails
through dense pine forests. Rheinsberg is a town in the middle of a region known
as ‘1,000 lakes,’ and the beauty of the place is breath-taking.
We were the only team representing great Britain. It was great to see teams from germany, Canada, Finland,
Sweden, Belgium, France, the USA and Italy. the final swim loomed and a supporter shouted, “You’re third
mixed team. go, go, go!” I felt my husband pick up the pace on the last 600m swim. the final 470m sprint to
the finish line was painful, to say the least.
Our prize was a free entry to next year’s race, where we hope to do the 40km event and try to qualify for the
world championships in Sweden.

Students Support local Charities News 5

We have launched our very own Charity Team empowering

our students to raise money to support local charities and learn the

important lesson of helping others.

Recently staff and students were given the opportunity to vote for a local

charity they would like to fundraise for this term. they had the opportunity

to choose between three charities: the Dame hannah Rogers trust,

the Dartmoor Pony heritage trust and St luke’s hospice. the winning local

charity was St luke's hospice.

In November representatives from the hospice visited us to talk to the

students about their work and how the money raised will help them

continue to care for their terminally ill patients.

"the College wanted to help our students raise money for something they

care about," said einir Shore, Associate leader, "Our students are very keen

to continue with supporting our local

community and have many

exciting fundraising ideas ranging from

fancy dress, staff versus students netball,

cake sales and car washes."

Boots4Africa

Year 7 student, Tom Burstow, who plays in the Football Academy, was touched by seeing photographs of
children in Africa playing football in sandals and bare feet and decided he wanted to do something to help.
Over the three years that tom has been playing football, all of the boots he has outgrown (16 pairs) have been
stored in his parent’s garage and he decided he wanted to send them to the children
he had seen in Africa. the boots were duly cleaned and re-laced and prepared for
shipment; but with no experience of shipping large parcels overseas they were at a
quandary of what to do next.
Fortunately, Just4Keepers (J4K) founder and owner, Ray Newland (ex Plymouth Argyle
FC and everton) came up with the solution and agreed to use his J4K glove company’s
international distribution network to send the boots to Kenya for tom. In addition, the
local J4K Academy coach, george Opiyo (ex Kenyan International and Premiership
goalkeeper) agreed to distribute the boots to those areas in Nairobi where they would
serve most benefit.
tom’s boots are no longer gathering dust in the back of the garage but have been
given new leases of life and are allowing youngsters in Kenya to enjoy playing their
football in proper boots instead of plimsolls.
tom is coached as a goalkeeper at Plymouth Argyle’s Centre of excellence and plays in
the Devon Junior and Minor league for Activate Youth U12s.