The Twin Town Challenge – the mad-cap car challenge co-organised by STL Communications boss Brendon Cross - will come to the end of an amazing fundraising road next spring with the fourth and final event.
Cross hopes ICT channel teams will rally to the cause and help make the last event a bumper money maker and top the £1million mark raised to date by the challenge.
The last event next May will see 100 cars costing less than £500 travel to Witney’s twin town of Le Touquet for a weekend of fun points-based challenges to raise money for Charlbury based charity SpecialEffect
“The Twin Town Challenge is an amazing sight with a hundred cars, 400 people in fancy dress and over 50 volunteers,” said Cross.
“For the last ever Twin Town Challenge we have a fabulous programme of events planned in and around Le Touquet including a day at Abbeville circuit as well as the now infamous street party with live bands in the middle of Le Touquet.”
All the costs of the event will be covered by sponsorship, which means that every pound paid in entry fees as well as the fundraising by the teams, goes straight to the charity.
“We are very lucky that so many businesses from the games industry and local Oxfordshire businesses give so generously to sponsor this event. Their generosity enables us to cover the costs of the Eurotunnel crossings, the hire of the venues and to feed all the participants during the weekend,” added Cross.
On Friday 1st May 2020, the cars will leave from Blenheim Palace and head for France. Once across the channel the teams will compete for points as they undertake challenges in and around Le Touquet. The highlight of the event is a street party with a live band in the centre of town when the Twin Towners are joined by the residents of Le Touquet for a night of partying. The event will finish back at Blenheim Palace on Monday 4th May.
The organising team are supported during the event by a team of volunteers who set up and clear up, marshal, organise, serve refreshments, score and generally run the event. There is also a team of mechanics, a bus for the media, a photographer and film crew and a bus of shame for any team who breaks down.
The theme for Twin Town 2020 is ‘Battle of the Bands’ and teams are already starting to plan their car decoration and fancy dress. In past events, teams have driven London taxis and stretched limos as well as more ordinary vehicles disguised as Jurassic Park, Scooby Doo’s Mystery Machine, Power Rangers and Pirates of the Caribbean.
All money raised will go to the SpecialEffect charity based in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, which puts fun and inclusion back into the lives of those with physical disabilities using technology ranging from modified joy-pads to eye-control. The charity has already benefitted from the £840,000 raised by the Twin Town Challenges in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Funds from the Twin Town events have been crucial in enabling SpecialEffect to establish a games room for young people to visit, to buy new vehicles and to take on more specialist staff to meet the rapidly growing demand for their support and services.
See www.twintown.org.uk for further details.