A year ten student from Weymouth is raising funds to do vital environmental and community work abroad.
Maisie Cropper, 14, attends Budmouth Academy is raising funds to travel to Borneo with the school to volunteer at Camp International’s Borneo expedition.
Over the next year, she will be completing various fundraising activities for the trip. The first will be a 50km sponsored walk across the Jurassic Coast, from Winfrith to Ferrybridge, on April 13 – a fear which Maisie describes as a “great personal challenge.”
She said: “It’s a really good way to raise the money to do something like this. It’s such a great personal challenge. I’ve done similar things in the past like a 42km walk but this is a massive personal challenge as Borneo is going to be such an experience.
“The Borneo expedition is really important to me and I’m so excited for it.”
Maisie has been training for the walk since January, giving up her Sundays to walk various routes around Dorset with friends and family supporting her along the way.
This four-week trek will involve community, wildlife, and environmental work such as building classrooms, installing water storage systems, replanting native trees, and helping to protect orangutan habitats.
Volunteers are also given the opportunity to learn to scuba dive on a PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Course, where they will simultaneously learn about marine life and conservation.
This aspect of the trip particularly interests Maisie who would like to delve further into marine conservation in the local area.
She said: “I haven’t had much education about how to help with the marine conservation in the Weymouth area, but I would love to be able to help out with it more.
“With this volunteering I’ll get a diving qualification but also help marine conservation and other issues surrounding marine life.”
Maisie is hoping to raise £5,000 to cover the cost of the exhibition and will be completing numerous fundraising events throughout the year to raise enough funds to complete the expedition next summer. She has already raised £816 so far on the sponsored walk GoFundMe page.
She said: “Everyone has been amazing and so supportive. Being able to help children and develop communities and wildlife in Borneo would be amazing so if people would be able to help it would mean so much to me.”
You can donate to Maisie's fundraiser by going to her Just Giving Page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/50k-sponsored-walk-for-conservation-expedition
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