Lent Challenge

Channel Challenge

Have you tried to give up something for Lent? At Ashdown, we have decided to try and give up waste. The challenge is to make sure that everything that we have on our plates at mealtimes gets eaten so that we throw away relatively little food. Our aim is to try and calculate how much money we save over the period of Lent as a result of not having to over-cater and then contribute that sum to a charity working to save the lives of those who are short of food.

How much money might you save by not throwing food away? Food that is, perhaps, allowed to go beyond it's sell-by date or that is left over from making another meal? Add to that the land-fill impact of all that waste and it seems to make really good sense.

Some of the children have suggested ideas for charities that we might support. Please encourage your children (and indeed your families at home) to keep to the Clean Plate challenge. Perhaps you'd also like to contribute towards our fund-raisng initiative?

n my first sermon of the New Year, I spoke about the exploits of Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, in 1875. His exploits, from saving the life of his brother in the River Severn as a child to receiving fame and fortune for diving from the ship that he captained in an attempt to save the life of one of his sailors, make for interesting reading.

 Although most modern channel swimmers attempt a precisely charted twenty mile route, Webb had to avoid difficult currents and ended up swimming approximately thirty nine miles before he landed in Calais, in a time of just under twenty two hours. As is written on his tombstone: 'Nothing Great is Easy'. For further details of his life story, have a look at www.shropshiremining.org.uk/captwebb

My New Year's resolution is to try and match his swim in the Ashdown house pool...bit by bit, of course. I aim to complete 39 miles in 2008. I've put up the challenge and George Breare of the 1s is trying to complete a twenty mile crossing before he leaves in July. In my case, that will mean 3900 lengths of the Ashdown pool. For George, 2000 lengths.

At the end of one month, we're both a little behind schedule but we intend to complete our targets. Do watch the website for updates.