KU student urges peers to join international fundraising mission

A KU student is recruiting fellow students for a charity fundraising trip to Colombia next summer.

Third-year fine art & art history student Zoe Garlington, 22, is collaborating with adventure travel company Choose a Challenge to arrange the August 2022 trip. 

The trip will involve taking a tour of the lost city, camping with the indigenous Wiwa community and bathing in the pools of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, whilst enjoying the local cuisine and learning Colombian traditions.

“I first got involved with Choose a Challenge by total chance when I stumbled upon their Instagram,” said Garlington. “I was taken aback by the work they are doing with charities, while giving young people opportunities to travel for cheaper.”

Garlington hopes to raise money for UK based charity Amnesty International on her travels, a charity which campaigns against abuses of human rights worldwide.

She said: “They are fighting real world issues, things that are happening right now. I chose this charity because I wanted everyone to be raising money for something they really believe in.”

Garlington said she opted to gather a team for the trip, rather than travelling alone, in order to open up the experience to her peers who may not have otherwise considered travelling.

“I chose Colombia for the absolutely stunning views, but also because of the level of difficulty of the route. I liked the fact that I would be able to get people involved who would be trekking for the first time,” she said.

Meetings for those interested in the trek are being held on campus on Tuesday October 5, in room PRMB3015. These will take place at 1pm and 5pm, hosted by 22-year-old Choose a Challenge representative Leo Thomson.

“Challenges for charity offer students a fairly unique way to impact thousands of people’s lives whilst simultaneously having an epic adventure themselves,” said Thomson. “Not only do you meet friends for life, but it’ll bolster your CV too.”