The Donors: Dylan White and crew
The Gift: Raising $25,000
The Cause: Survival International
The Reason: To help support tribal people's rights globally
Dylan White has been on some major expeditions in his life, like cycling across Canada last year. But when he and a couple of friends started looking for a bigger challenge, they decided to take a crack at a world record in rowing.
Not just any record. Mr. White and 13 colleagues from Canada, the United States and Austria will try to row across the Atlantic Ocean in 32 days, without stopping and without any support. "You have to row the entire way and you can't have any help," Mr. White said from his home in Guelph, Ont.
The crew plans to rotate every couple of hours, with six people rowing and eight resting. They have a specially made 40-foot catamaran, named Big Blue, which will be packed with supplies and water desalinizing equipment. The boat is being shipped to Morocco and the team plans to leave from Agadir on Jan. 8 and row roughly 5,000 kilometres to Barbados, taking advantage of favourable currents and trade winds. They hope to break the record crossing of 33 days held by a British-based team.
Mr. White and two other Canadians on the team have turned the adventure into a fundraising opportunity. They are hoping to raise $25,000 for Survival International, a British organization that works with indigenous groups around the world to protect tribal people's rights.
Not many crew members are experienced rowers, including Mr. White, 24, who recently completed his environmental sciences studies at the University of Guelph. So why take such a risky trip?
The ocean "is just such an exotic location," he said. "Being completely isolated and unsupported in the middle of the ocean is so exotic and so remote. And so few people have really done it."