Leeds Rhinos Foundation Ambassador Club Oulton Raiders have been busy this summer fundraising to send their under 7s team to the 2016 Rhinos Challenge event, completing the Yorkshire three peaks challenge last week with the promise of more to come.
Rhinos Challenge ran by ESF events and the Leeds Rhinos Foundation is the UK’s biggest Youth Rugby League Festival for under 8s to 15s and saw an unprecedented 70 teams and over 3,000 people attend the award winning Butlins resort in Skegness to take in the unique tour experience in 2015.
The event has doubled in size for 2016, with an allocation of 150 teams due to take part in the tournament next year and accommodation for over 6,000 people for the event taking place on the 14th and 15th May, with a second event at Haven Holidays in Blackpool recently announced due to the high demand for places.
Richard Hutchinson, who is the under 7s coach at Oulton Raiders and joint club ambassador for the club, saw Rhinos Challenge as an opportunity not to be missed for his under 7s team:
“Next Season we are planning to take the current Oulton Raiders under 7s to the 2016 Rhinos Challenge, as we believe that this will be a fantastic opportunity for our playing squad to bond together as a team, it will really provide our players with a focus to aid their development of rugby league skills and application.”
To ensure that nobody from the team will miss out on the chance to go on tour, the team’s committee members and parents decided to start fundraising to cover the costs for every parent and child, as Richard explains:
“We have already registered our team for this event and paid a £1,900 deposit to commit ourselves, however, we want to make this event accessible to as many of our playing squad as possible and so far we have signed up 19 players from our squad the Rhinos Camp. This is the reason why we are aiming to try and raise £3,500 to help subsidise the costs for each player and their families.”
To help the club reach the target, eight parents and one grandparent from the club took on the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge to help raise the £3,500 needed to cover tour costs, successfully navigating the summits of Pen-y-Ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough in the glorious Yorkshire Dales.
The challenge that took place on the 3rd October, saw the team navigate a range of different terrain for a total of 24 miles, covering over 2000m (7064ft) of ascent and took a total of11 hours to complete, still has sponsorship money coming in to the club but raised a fantastic £1700.
“We are still in the process of collecting sponsorship monies but we estimate that from this event we have raised somewhere in the region of £1,700, which means that it has been a worthwhile and fantastic effort from everyone involved.” Added Richard.
Due to high demand for the popular event, the Rhinos Challenge at Butlins Skegness is now sold out for 2016 with over 60 clubs signed up to the event from different areas of the country. Rhinos Challenge will now run a second event at Haven Holidays Blackpool.
The new Rhinos Challenge festival at Blackpool is open to Rugby League teams of all abilities in the under 8s to under 12s age group, with teams accommodated at Haven's Cala Gran Holiday Park, on location at one of the UK's most popular seaside resorts boasting the Golden Mile, Blackpool Tower, the Pier and the amazing Pleasure Beach Theme Park.
You can view the details of the new Blackpool festival taking place from the 17th to the 20th June at the following link http://rhinoschallenge.co.uk/_youth-rugby-league-tour-venues/blackpool-lancashire/
or to reserve a place Call ESF Events on 01664 566360