Students from across the country helped raise €36,000 for charities including St Vincent De Paul by fleeing to far flung corners of the world as part of the recent ‘Jailbreak14’.
The initiative saw almost 80 student teams from Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University College Cork and NUI Galway escape to locations as remote as Jamaica and Bali on February 22nd and 23rd in a bid to raise funds for good causes.
There were initial concerns for how some of the students, who travelled on a shoestring budget, would make their way home to Ireland. However by the middle of the week following the project, almost all participants had managed to secure return travel arrangements from their international locations.
Trinity medical students Kyryll Chulak and Salim Sebaoui were crowned winners after making it to Sydney, Australia from their starting point of Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin within the designated 36-hour window.
“We tried to encourage everyone to charm businesses into providing air-miles or sponsorship,” organiser Jack Cantillon told The College View.
Chulak and Sebaoui managed to acquire sponsorship from a Dubai-based tour company for their adventure.
Over 200 people applied to be part of ‘Jailbreak14’. The pairs applying had to raise €200 before February 22nd to be eligible for participation in the project. Over 100 teams initially applied and nearly 80 took part in the weekend.
Donations for the event are set to go to St Vincent de Paul, Amnesty International and Draíocht.
The event was previously open to Trinity students alone, however it was expanded this year to include UCD, NUIG and UCC.
Cantillon hopes to even further advance the event next year. He said: “It’s in a sort of evolution phase at the minute but we’re going to try to make it a bit different again.”
Bryan Grogan
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