The ‘Lost Terriers’ on the Put Foot Rally

Sam and his team the ‘Lost Terriers’ have just finished their participation in this year’s Put Foot Rally across 6,000 miles of Southern Africa, through 5 countries (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Malawi) in 18 days. (If you’ve ever driven off the beaten track in Africa you’ll appreciate how big the challenge was!)

The purpose of the rally, the ‘glue’ that connected 400 people from around the world was to support the Put Foot Foundation, which has 2 primary goals:

#1 To provide impoverished young children in Africa with a pair of shoes that can ‘grow’ with them through approx. 5 years of school life

#2 To support wildlife conservation of endangered animals such as Rhinoceros, Elephant, Lion and Leopard

Beyond this, people were connected with a burning desire to just ‘do-good’ and give something back, whilst having the adventure of a lifetime and learning about other cultures.

After 18 days, 400 people traveling in 140 vehicles had shared an experience that broke through barriers of prejudice, stereotyping, cultural ignorance, language and intolerance. 400 people, from an incredibly broad social demographic supporting each other emotionally, physically and mentally – through road accidents, mechanical and emotional breakdowns, life threatening incidents and loss, and perhaps most importantly, supporting each other without restraint to achieve a common goal of collectively fitting over 2,500 pairs of shoes at rural school locations and raising money for conservation.

In total, that connection through common purpose raised approximately £95,000 in an incredibly short time-span; an amount that can make an enormous difference to local communities and the protection of wildlife that is critical to the biosphere.

Sam’s individual efforts have raised over £1,000 in donations for local charity ‘Forget Me Not’ which provides support for children with life shortening conditions and their families in West Yorkshire.

Sam said: “The highlight of the trip was handing out the shoes, it was the reason we were there, the enduring 11 hour drives became forgivable when you arrive at a school. We handed out 300 pairs of shoes in about an hour. The faces on the children is something I’ll remember forever.”

“Another highlight of the trip, was the amazing scenery and wildlife. Catching a Leopard on camera during the day, was a huge privilege, some of the South Africans claimed that ‘even the park rangers that have worked there years don’t get to see a Leopard during the day, it just doesn’t happen.’”

Chancellor were proud to be the main sponsor for Sam’s team, providing t-shirts for the team to be given out to the children and gave funds towards the cost of visas, fuel and food.

You can still support Sam on https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lostterriers

Or read about his story on https://lostterriers.wordpress.com/