Jailbreak shatters fundraising target

Warwick Jailbreak 2010, the biggest Jailbreak in history, took place between 6-8th November. 131 teams and 343 individuals participated in the 36-hour charity challenge, in which teams travel as far as possible from the University while spending no money on transport. Teams reached locations as far as Bangkok, Serbia, Florence, Barcelona and Inverness.

This year the charity supported was UNICEF, chosen because of its global identity and its strong positive impact on projects across the world. Participants had raised £27,282.40 at the time of writing, well above the £20,000 target. Money raised will go directly to children in Pakistan who were affected by the floods in that country. Euan Long from the team ‘Psychic Moose’ said “I have some top notch flat mates who generously placed themselves into more student debt”.

Rob Smith, Managing Director of Choose a Challenge, which sponsors the event, said: “Jailbreak is a fantastic challenge which we organise at 21 universities throughout the UK. Jailbreak is particularly interesting in the current climate as the government is slashing funding in search of “more for less” as it shows just how innovative the stereotypical “lazy student” can be by traveling thousands of miles in just 36 hours with no plan and with no money. Warwick Jailbreak has come on leaps and bounds over the past 2 years reaching in excess of 350 participants this year to become the UK’s largest Jailbreak event.”

First place was achieved by Team ‘Destination Unknown,’ comprised of third years Tanaya Bharatan, Surabhie Chadha and Akshay Bhatia. They traveled 5,987 miles to Bangkok. The team said: “The concept of Jailbreak was so exciting. We were incredibly lucky to get last-minute sponsorship from Griffin Marine Travel. As international students, we were limited to countries that offered immediate visas. We managed to get airline tickets to Bangkok via New Delhi.” Their surreal experience was heightened by their lack of sleep as they had celebrated Diwali the night before. Bhatia described it as a “step out of our comfort zone. You have no money and can feel helpless.” After a connecting flight in New Delhi, the team relaxed with friends in Thailand before returning to the UK triumphant.

‘Team Beast’ managed to collectively raise £1,477.52 and travel 280 miles to Holland. Team member Gabriel Guigui explained, “raising for UNICEF was one of the most important motivations to do Jailbreak. You think of all the people that donated and don’t want to disappoint them. At Victoria Station we found barriers without controllers, quickly threw our bags under the barriers and crawled to the other side and onto the train to Dover.”

Several teams encountered problems in the UK with fines for fare dodging on trains and some participants had to submit their names to the transport police. Jonathan Humphreys from the team ‘I’m a Parrot, trust me’, who managed to reach Paris, told the Boar: “we jumped on trains illegally, which resulted in two fines, £61 on a Virgin train from Coventry to London and the other from Lille to Paris, which was €102. But I doubt we’ll pay that.”

Means of transport used by the participants were varied. Katherine Sroga of ‘The Liberated,’ said “We got from place-to-place in vehicles including a fire engine and the car of a hippy eco-warrior. He thought that everybody should hitch to save the environment. Someone managed to blag us a free meal on the ferry to Dunkirk. The chefs even put in some extra chips and free baguettes for the next day.” The team travelled 631 miles in total ending at Dresden in Germany. Another team, ‘Bitchin Hitchin,’ was the first ever to reach the Balkans and additionally covered the furthest distance overland this year of 1,144 miles.

Since its inception Jailbreak has enjoyed a steady increase in levels of participation, raised larger amounts for charity each year and gained campus presence. The Jailbreak executive committee hopes that the success of the venture will continue in years to come, and even beat the precedent set this 2010.