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HAVE A GOOD weekend? Catch up with some friends? Finally get your laundry done?
Well you won’t be able to top the antics of those involved with Trinity Jailbreak, a fundraising event that saw Trinity College Students travel the world in 36 hours
Over 70 students had to try and get as far away from Trinity as possible without spending any money in an attempt to raise funds for Trinity VDP (Vincent De Paul) and DU Amnesty.
They all set off from the college at 9:30 Saturday morning, some of the students running to their next destination from the off:
YouTube / DULawSociety
The college used their radio station and the Trinity Jailbreak Twiter account to track the adventures of everybody. They even had a live map of where everyone was.
Twitter / TCDJailbreak
Pictures were provided over the weekend of students who made it to various countries and their high jinks. Includes mandatory shot of young people in onesies.
Twitter / TCDJailbreak
Twitter interest started to go beyond those in the college to users across the country who helped the hasthag #TCDJailbreak13 trend twice over the weekend.
Given the kind of things that were being tweeted about the journeys being undertaken it’s no surprise.
One team made it to Dubai after meeting some famous friends:
Twitter / RosaLanghammer
And another team made it far as Sydney and still had time to make Mastercard jokes:
Twitter / jackcantillon
Some didn’t quite make it as far sadly:
Twitter / TCDJailbreak
The undeniably impressive travels of the various students certainly caught the attention of many Twitter users, particularly those in other colleges who seemed dead set on getting their chosen alma matter to do their own version.
Twitter / bekimmcarthy
Twitter / orlaaaaith
Of course plenty of people just felt a bit inadequate in comparison.
Twitter / seamuu
Twitter / candyapplekt
Twitter / tegeepee
And some people just used this whole thing as a chance to put Abercrombie & Fitch in it’s place:
Twitter / RDBarry / Abercrombie
The winner was announced last night, live on Trinity FM which had thousands of listeners joining them to find who’d made it the furthest.
The winning team of Matthew Heinbach and Claire Cullen narrowly made it to first place but managed to make headlines even in Argentina.
Twitter / oscar_soria / lacapitalmq
And even though Team 6 had won by 9.30 last night there were still other groups making their way across the world
Twitter / seanfox11
As the action settled down, those who had been following the drama were desolate:
Twiter / Scroash
Although one person reckons it’s all a cheeky way of emigrating
Twitter / tighereb
Now that numerous students are making their way back from around the world, the fundraising attempts are continuing with over €10,000 raised so far.
Twitter / TCDJailbreak
If you want to donate you can do so here and the Trinity Jailbreak Twitter account is a great way to catch up on the individual teams and what they’re up to.
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How do these people get free flights to far flung places? Great idea. Best of luck getting a free flight home!
One team got sponsorship from TCd Graduate and ex-CEO of Aer Lingus who is now VP of Brunei Airlines, another team got flying miles from an engineering company, others I’m not quite so sure.
Those who went to places like France and the UK simply hitch-hiked their way there.
I believe Stennaline were fantastic and gave any of the teams who arrived a free ferry over to the UK.
“Hello, St. Vincent de Paul. How can I help?” “Hello I’m stuck in Argentina. Please help!”.
Think it’s daft going abroad to do things for charity. Do it here and put that saving into the charity pot!
If that happened it would be boring, nobody would be interested, no publicity, not such an impressive amount raised!
Don’t see how you can make a saving on €0 spent!
Personally disappointed, and in fact disgusted, to learn that Cantillon and Browne, championing themselves as raising money for charity, just called a wealthy friend of the family to organise and pay for their flights for them and are now taking a week off college in Sydney. Raised a fraction of their flight costs for VDP, no more than a few hundred euro currently. Totally against the spirit of the fundraiser; just hope the other teams that made it to similarly far-flung regions of the world did not employ similar methods and that this does not become a trend.
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