For many, the idea of hurling themselves out of a plane at 13000 feet sounds like a nightmare, but one Headteacher from Coventry is about to take on the thrill seekers as he joins members of the famous Red Devils for 45 seconds of freefall at a terrifying 120mph.
Roger Whittall, 55, who is the Headteacher of The Westwood School, Coventry will be skydiving in tandem with a member of the Red Devils parachute team on Sunday 9th June at Langer Skydiving Centre. The opportunity was donated to him by Steve McDonagh, Chief Executive of Trinity Expert Systems who has been a supporter of the School that Roger teaches at for a number of years.
Steve won the experience at an auction in aid of Southampton based sailing Charity, the Jubilee Sailing Trust – which offers tall ship sailing adventures to able-bodied and disabled people and donated the prize to Roger because of their shared love of extreme sports. Roger and Steve met through The Westwood School, where Steve now acts as the Chair of Trustees since the school became a Trust School around a year ago.
Roger is no stranger to the world of adventure as a trained Sailing Instructor and a keen Mountaineer. He is also set to do a week of snow and Ice trekking and has a coast to coast sailing adventure with his wife coming up. He already has an empathy with the cause of the Jubilee Sailing Trust due to the fact that his school caters for children of mixed abilities.
Roger is also collecting sponsorship for his skydive, “I’m raising the sponsorship because I think Jubilee Sailing Trust is an important cause. We have a unit in the [Westwood] School for children with visual impairments and we have a number of wheelchair users. As a dingy coach I can see the benefits of outdoor pursuits for people with disabilities. I hope that in raising money for this skydive I can raise enough money to send at least on of the kids from my school on a sailing adventure with the charity.” In doing so the charity can continue to make it’s adventures accessible to everyone.
Jubilee Sailing Trust is a Southampton based charity that owns and operates the only two tall ships in the world designed and built to enable people of all physical abilities to sail alongside one another as crew members.
Jubilee Sailing Trust takes crews from the age of 16 and up and age means nothing onboard. Over 2000 people started sailing with the charity after the age of 65, while the oldest person ever to have sailed was 98.
No experience is necessary; all that’s required is a willingness to become part of the action as each person on board is expected to take up the helm, keep watch and muck in with the upkeep of the ship.
If anyone wishes to sponsor Roger for his skydive they can do so on his Virgin Money Giving page www.virginmoneygiving.com/rogerwhittle