After raising over £6,000 for charity by participating in the Oxfam Trailtrekker 2012, staff from Exprodat have entered two teams in the Oxfam Trailwalker UK 2012 event, starting Friday 12th July 2012.
Trailwalker was originally started by the Queens Gurkha Signals Regiment over 30 years ago as a training exercise to test soldiers’ stamina and teamwork skills. The Challenge is to complete the 100km Trailwalker trail, across the South Downs, in under 30 hours in teams of four. The event requires great determination and teamwork, and aims to raise money to help people in poverty to make a better life for themselves through the work of Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
In order to encourage team members to keep their sponsors up-to-date with progress, Exprodat have created an interactive web mapping application that will track both teams along the route. Using this application you can view the locations of the teams as well as view tweets and photos posted to Twitter (@TeamGIS2012 and @TeamGISYouth) by the teams during their ordeal.
The web mapping application was written in HTML5 using a combination of OpenSpace and Google Maps, and optimised for use across multiple browsers and platforms, including iPhones and iPads.
You can sponsor the Exprodat teams by visiting their fundraising websites:
- Team-GIS (the oldies)
- Team-GIS Youth (the youngsters)
Exprodat’s teams are aiming to raise £10,000 for Oxfam, with the company matching each individual donation pound for pound (see the team’s progress on the fundraising leaderboard).
The training efforts of both teams have been supported by Exprodat’s charitable works policy that allows every staff member up to 5 days’ paid leave a year for volunteer work.