Rhino Charge

Rhino Charge is a 20 year old Kenyan institution organised to raise funds for the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust and it takes place this weekend. Sandstorm has supported the event in the past, and this year the extremely persuasive Elodie Sampere, Head of Conservancy Marketing at Lewa has convinced us to sponsor her team Pinks in Charge. You can donate before (and after!) the event at JustGiving here and FirstGiving here.

We in turn managed to convince our friends at Scottish ad agency Newhaven Communications to sponsor them as well. Perhaps not the most tightly targeted piece of sponsorship in history but it's all in a very good cause, and it just goes to show how nice they are.

Below is a little about the event from their website, but follow the link and take a look for yourself.

The Rhino Charge is an off-road event in which competitors are required to visit 13 points scattered over approximately 100 square kms of rough terrain within a 10 hour period. Competitors are supplied with a 1:50,000 scale map of the venue, co-ordinates of the 13 Control Points and their Start position (at one of the Controls). Each competitor must plot the Control Points on the map and decide his/her route. Navigation is by compass/GPS and the winner is the competitor who visits all controls in the shortest distance (GPS measured). The event is organised to raise funds for the Rhino Ark Charitable Trust. Competitors are required to raise the minimum sponsorship set by the organising committee. Most however raise considerably more - the record to date being Kshs 9,393,552 in 2008 from Car No. 5 Alan McKittrick, Bruce Knight, Charlie Hewitt-Stubbs, John Trundell, S. McKittrick, winners of the prestigious David Schaeffer Trophy. Long-time supporters such as Mike and Sarah Higgins have raised a total of Kshs 39,604,399 over the last 20 years.