The Gryphon School Year 7 student Joshua White is climbing the equivalent of Mount Everest on his stairs at home after seeing an appeal by Dartmoor Zoo to help raise funds to save their animals.
Josh says “I saw Dartmoor Zoo on the local news and they said that they were short of money due to having to close because of coronavirus and not being allowed visitors at the moment. They said they may have to look at re-homing the animals or even put them down. I can’t let that happen. I’ve always loved animals so I wanted to do something to help.
“My stairs have a flight of 13 steps and me and my parents worked out that I would have to climb them 3,400 times in order to reach the equivalent of Mount Everest. I am doing two sessions a day and it should take me approximately a week to complete the challenge.”
Dartmoor Zoo is desperately fundraising to meet it’s running costs of £45,000 per month, despite furloughing 2/3 of its staff. Being a relatively new charity it is ineligible for government loans and as such has issued a plea for donations to help safeguard its animals.
Josh, a student at The Gryphon School, Sherborne, is hoping his fundraising efforts will help. The school is getting behind Josh’s efforts and his Head of Year Pamela Peacocke said “We are so impressed with Josh’s challenge and we hope the local community will get behind him. He is only 11 years old, so to take on this challenge is no mean feat and it shows what a caring individual he is. We just hope his stair carpet survives!”
Mount Everest stands at 8,848m (29,029ft) above sea level.
To make a donation click here for the JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joshwhite11
Source: The Gryphon School website
Photo: Josh White is climbing his stairs 3,400 times
