A trip to the Intelligent Sport UK Challenge in rainy Exmoor, saw Virgin Money Givers take part in the UK’s number 1 Corporate Team Challenge against 80 top corporate teams.
With fundraising the main aim of the challenge, this year’s teams raised over £310, 000 for the NSPCC – contributing to an overall £4m raised in the past 11 years through the event for the charity.
Virgin Money Giving is the official fundraising partner for the event, which combines adrenaline sports such as mountain biking and canoeing, with strategy and mental agility. But as well as supporting the participants with their online fundraising, we also entered our own team into the event, sending James Potter (Marketing), Suzanne Ives (Finance), Mike Dewbery (IT), James Cousins (IT), Dave Shelton (Charity Helpdesk) and Sean Taylor (Charity Helpdesk) off to Exmoor.
Going head to head in a series of stages lasting anything between 2-6 hours, the Virgin Money Giving team used strong strategic and physical ability to outwit their competitors in stages which included:
Night Time Boggle
Given 1 hour 45 minutes to make words of three or more letters using a giant grid, the team split into pairs and visited letter points situated in the grounds of DunsterCastle. Awarded bonus time for each valid word, the team finished 27th completing three short words.
The Final Stage
A final stage deciding the winner of the challenge and being broadcast on Channel 4 on July 31 at 7:30 am, the team cycled and ran a hilly route undertaking mental challenges in action zones placed around the course. Staying with the team at all times, the Virgin Money Givers crossed the finish line in 2hrs 45 minutes after passing through the Encryption, Memory, Intelligence and Logic Zones.
Exhausted but proud of their contributions towards an amazing fundraising event, which included a charity car wash and pub quiz prior to the challenge our Virgin Money Giving team were proud to come a very respectable 55th place and are already looking forward to next year!
You can find photos of our team at the event on our Facebook page, and if you’d like to congratulate them with a donation their Virgin Money Giving fundraising page is here http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/VMG.
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