After more than thirty years the Everest Challenge remains one of the most popular fundraising events in Guernsey’s annual calendar.
Pupils from the Baubigny Schools were among the first to take to the climbing wall that is at St Sampson’s High School when the challenge got underway this week, with pupils from Le Rondin and La Houguette schools also taking part, along with cubs, scouts, guides, and other youth organisations.
Organiser Gary Dovey said he sees familiar faces every year with banks and other businesses entering teams each time.
He’s also pleased that there’s always a steady flow of new people giving the climbing wall a go for the first time, to support the education of pupils at Le Murier School.
“We see new faces every year, but we do have some teams that have been coming forever and their bank’s names have changed over the years, but it’s the same crowd. So yeah, we’ve got the old school that have been coming for many, many years and the new ones.
“The funny thing is, a Suntera team asked ‘have you got the date for next year yet so we can put it in the calendar’.”
The Everest Challenge raises tens of thousands of pounds every year, which is used to fund Le Murier School’s residential and independent learning programme which is seen by the school as part of the students’ holistic learning.
“The money that we raise supports our outdoor residential learning curriculum,” explained Mr Dovey.
“We found a few years back when we were organising trips that some parents couldn’t afford for their children to go. We didn’t want to exclude them because financially they couldn’t go so we started this Everest Challenge, and it supports that. It buys any specialist kit, so if you’re doing the Duke of Edinburgh expedition, you don’t have to go and buy a rucksack, a sleeping bag, or waterproofs because we’ve got it all and you can borrow it.
“It also covers all the adults costs, because obviously some of our students get a lot of one to one care, so unlike a high school when they go on a trip, they might have 30 students and two staff, ours might be eight students and eight members of staff. We can’t pass that cost on to the parents so we cover all of that.”
As well as supporting his pupils at Le Murier School, Mr Dovey said he simply enjoys the community aspect of the Everest Challenge.
“What I love is seeing the old faces coming back. There’s a chap called Mark Dravers, who was at the very first one that we did. And he was here again with the Air Cadets, and that’s lovely. And then new people who come and say, ‘I didn’t know this was here, this is amazing’. And then the spin off sometimes is people say, ‘how can we get into this more?’ and if people want to do it more they can join the climbing club.”
Anyone wanting to take part in the Everest Challenge can still do so.
Book a slot online HERE or go to St Sampson’s High School today.