Team TRO’s Three Peaks Victory

Our mighty conquerors of mountains - Team TRO!

A massive round of applause, pat on the back and relaxing foot spas all round go to the fifteen incredibly brave members of Team TRO, who successfully conquered the combined might of the Three Peaks on July 1st.

The road was certainly not easy - both metaphorically and literally given the many miles they had to travel crammed into one minibus. Our intrepid adventurers also had to cope with snow while trekking up Ben Nevis and lashings of rain and arctic winds on the way towards the summit of Scafell Pike (that's the British summertime for us...). The unrelenting elements meant that Team TRO couldn't quite get to the top of Snowdon within 24 hours, but they all made it and, most importantly raised an absolutely staggering amount of money for The Reader Organisation's Apprenticeship: Building Opportunities For Life programme: currently, the total is estimated at a whopping £9,000, taking into account online and offline donations (completely smashing their £5,000 target - go Team TRO!)

Every single penny of the money raised from Team TRO's Three Peaks Challenge will go towards employing a new care-leaver apprentice at The Reader Organisation in April 2013, providing them with an invaluable opportunity to work, learn and take their first steps towards building an independent and fulfilled life. You can still help us raise money and support our future Apprentice by going to our website or donating here: http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/trothreepeaks

And for our heroes, a poem to read to celebrate their victory (while putting their feet up - of course):

Not to be conquered by these headlong days,
But to stand free: to keep the mind at brood
On life's deep meaning, nature's altitude
Of loveliness, and time's mysterious ways;
At every thought and deed to clear the haze
Out of our eyes, considering only this,
What man, what life, what love, what beauty is,
This is to live, and win the final praise.

Though strife, ill fortune, and harsh human need
Beat down the soul, at moments blind and dumb
With agony; yet, patience - there shall come
Many great voices from life's outer sea,
Hours of strange triumph, and, when few men heed,
Murmurs and glimpses of eternity.

(Outlook, Archibald Lampman)