Next week, Bloxham’s Senior Boarding Houses are undertaking a multitude of activities and challenges to raise money and awareness for Blind Children UK
On Tuesday 28th June, House day at Bloxham School, all Senior Boarding Houses will be engaging in a multitude of challenges to raise money and awareness for the fantastic Blind Children UK. Details of individual Houses’ challenges and how you can support them are given below:
Crake House
Crake House have organised a Bloxham version of the traditional triathlon, with the boys being divided up into their Tutor groups to compete against each other. One representative from each Tutor group will run 7 laps of the running track (2.8km), another will swim 20 lengths of the swimming pool, and a final student will cycle 14 laps of the athletics track cycling. The Tutor group with the overall fastest time across the disciplines will be the winners!
If you’d like to sponsor the boys, please visit their JustGiving page.
Egerton House
Egerton House have put together a unique “Race to Rio” triathlon, covering 9263km which, as you may have guessed, is the distance to Rio de Janeiro, home to the 2016 Olympics. This challenge is aimed at taking the Egerton boys outside of their comfort zone, whilst raising money for this important cause! Students have been challenged to earn six points each. One point equates to either a 10km cycle in the gym, 10 lengths of the pool, or 2km running round the athletics track. As you can imagine, to earn these six points apiece, these boys pushing themselves and will no doubt bring the boys closer together.
Egerton House are delighted to support Blind Children UK as an Old Bloxhamist, George Upfield (Eg 2010-15), had one eight vision but never allowed it to hold him back in any aspect of his life.
The House hope to raise ‘500 of donations and if you’d like to support the boys’ endeavour, you can do so through their sponsorship page.
Seymour House
Seymour House will undertake an accumulative Iron Man challenge, which has been coordinated by the boys. The distance completed, 180.25km bicycle ride, a 42.2km run, and a 3.86km swim is exactly the same as the famous Ironman Triathlon, and will be shared by the 62 members of Seymour House. All students will take part in every discipline and distances will be divided up amongst the year groups.
Blind Children UK is particularly close to the heart of Seymour House as one of its members is registered blind. He will be completing his share of the challenge on the day, alongside his chaperone.
Seymour is aiming to raise no less than ‘1,000 for this fantastic organisation and all donations are gratefully received. If you’d like to support the boys, please visit their JustGiving page here.
Wilson House
Wilson students from across the year groups are taking part in a number of different activities over the course of the day, in order to raise both money and awareness for Blind Children UK. The boys will be dividing up into teams of three to take part in a blind orienteering task, including a navigator, a guide and a blindfolded person. Each team will be part of a larger group, and the group whose teams arrive at the sailing club the quickest are the winners. There will also be various other fun challenges to increase the boys’ awareness of some of the problems faced by those with limited or no sight. These will include creating an audio book for a blind person, attempting to break a world record for the tallest tower made of matchsticks (to be completed both with vision and blindfolded) and competing in a blind wellie-golf challenge.
If you would to sponsor the Wilson House boys, they too have their own JustGiving page. You can also donate £5 via text, by sending the code BLOX60 to 70070.
Wilberforce House
The Wilberforce girls hope to raise funds by way of the “Great Wilbo Bake Off” baking competition. The girls will be divided into five teams, with each preparing their own delectable batch of brownies, before going on to prepare a second baking delight.
The afternoon will comprise a fun taste-test challenge for all members of the House. The girls will blindly taste an array of foods and will have to employ their other senses of touch, smell, taste and sound(!) to try and detect what they’re eating. This is a brilliant way of offering the girls a glimpse of the challenges that are faced by those young people with impaired sight.
Members of the Bloxham community will be able to try the delicious cakes and treats ‘ for a small donation ‘ in the main Wilberforce House entrance during the afternoon. The girls will then be selling their wares at pick up time to Exham House pupils and their parents, before supporting the afternoon’s annual Open Air Concert, hosted at Jubilee Court. Remember to bring along some small change to support this brilliant cause and to fill up on these tasty treats!
Raymond House
The girls in Raymond House, with the help of Matron, have worked hard over the last few days to create a small selection of wonderful designs and crafty ideas based around the pom-pom. They chose to the theme of the pom-poms to reflect their tactile properties, a higly valued asset for someone with impaired vision. Next Tuesday, the girls will be working hard throughout the day to create even more beautiful designs and decorations, and are gathering donations for Blind Children UK through Tuesday’s non-uniform day.
If you would like to support the girls, they will be selling their initial stock at Saturday’s Founderstide lunch. Please be aware that there will be limited stock so, if you miss out, remember that they will return to sell more of their beautiful stock at pick up on Wednesday afternoon. Items will include pencil toppers, flowers, garlands, decorative pieces of little people and Christmassy-themed scenes.
Best of luck to all Houses in their fundraising attempts – we’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines!
Who are Blind Children UK?
Blind Children UK has been nominated as this term’s school charity. It is part of the Guide Dogs family of charities and is the leading charity for children and young people with sight loss. It supports around 4000 children and young people across the UK, from birth through to adulthood, giving the young people the confidence and independence they need to be able to succeed as they get older. The organisation works closely with the young people themselves, as well as their families, to ensure that everyone gets the support they need.