A team from King William’s College, representing the charity Excellent Development, serenaded their way to victory in a closely fought battle at this year’s One World Charity Challenge finals, held last week at the Manx Museum in Douglas.
 
The team, comprising of Year 12 students Harab Khan, Cameron Wheeler, Conor Taylor, Conor Moroney, Charlie McGowan and Tom Padley, were judged the overall winners for their presentation on Excellent Development’s work on sand dams. This included a rendition of a song they had composed during the fundraising stage of the competition which they performed on the night in front of the invited audience including Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney (Patron of the One World Centre) and Chief Minister Howard Quayle.
 
As overall winners the team was awarded ?1,700 for Excellent Development and they also picked up the audience vote which gave them another ?250. Joint runners-up were a team from QE2 High School representing African Promise and a second team from King Williams College representing Drop Inn Ministries. Both these teams also won ?1,700 for their charities with the Drop Inn Ministries team also picking up a further ?250 for most creative fundraising award.
 
The three remaining finalists were awarded joint fourth place and ?1,200 each for their chosen charities. These were teams from Ballakermeen High School representing Powerful Information, Castle Rushen High School representing Pahar Trust and Ramsey Grammar School representing St George Foundation.
 
This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Charity Challenge initiative which challenges Manx students to learn about international development issues by researching a small Isle of Man or UK-based charity working overseas.
 
As well as learning about the wider world, students are required to develop their ICT, presentation, public speaking, time management and teamworking skills to put together a multimedia presentation on their findings. The project is unique in the British Isles and often gives participating students an added talking point in their university or job applications.
 
One World Charity Challenge was developed by the One World Centre in conjunction with the H&S Davidson Trust and the Trust has provided funding for the competition throughout the whole 10 years – five more than originally intended.
 
One World Centre Director Rosemary Clarke paid tribute to the inspiration and commitment of Hugh and Sandra Davidson at the anniversary event, saying: “The funding the Trust has provided has made a real difference both to the 1000 and more students who have participated in the Challenge and to the charities who have benefited from the generous prize money that the Trust has donated.
 
“We can’t thank Hugh and Sandra Davidson enough for enabling us to offer this opportunity to the young people of the Isle of Man and for their support in helping some of the poorest of the poor in our world.”
 
The Trust will now step down as sponsors of the event and it was revealed that AFD Software, the Ramsey-based address data business, will provide funding to enable the competition to continue for next year’s Year 12 students.

Photo - The victorious KWC team receiving their cheque for ?1,950 to Excellent Development by Chief Minister Howard Quayle.