A narrative of the Debens Rotaract Mountain Challenge team raising funds dressed as Superheroes. In full colour and on glossy webpaper! A perfectly ordinary Saturday night in Ipswich. The afternoons football was a draw, so everyone was in a kind of mellow mood. Quite a few people were sitting around in pubs, saying how they almost won. Others were quietly playing pool. Then, there are the Rotaractors. See, here they are now, pulling up into the car park. Having spent half an hour back at Alans house zipping each other into their various spandex costumes, pulling up their tights, straightening their capes, and putting on their masks. (This last is an essential, given it's for-runners)

And, so emerging into the public for the first time in recent time, and this reality, come Superman, Spiderman, Supergirl, Batman and Robin. And Zorro. This last, stepping forth from the bat-mobile, might strike some people as an odd addition to the group. But these people must consider that they have just thought of a group of Superheroes as normal, so we won't mention it if they don't. It is at this point that Batman and Robin realise their utility belts may contain bat-gas, bat-radios, bat-cameras and bat-insect repellent. but they seem to be a bit short on bat-change for the car park. Superman, his cousin, and Spiderman pat themselves down and realise they don't have pockets. "Fine", says Ian , the one-in-plain-clothes and reaches into his wallet to save the superheroes from their cash crisis.

The plan was simple. Wander round 10 pubs, having previously agreed with the landlord this would be ok, stop in a few for drinks, and collect money from anyone not wearing skin-tight outfits or carrying a sword. As they head towards their first pub, it crosses Batmans highly trained mind that it seemed like such a simple idea when "this girl I met at badminton" asked him if he'd like to climb a mountain. As our costumed heroes stop in the first pub for a quick one (Ian wallet comes in useful again), let us follow the path of Pete - aka Bruce Wayne. The girl in question was Claire (currently knocking back an alcopop and dressed as Supergirl). Claire is the project leader for the Rotaract Mountain Challenge team - the RGBI entry into Rotarys fundraising effort for Sightsavers this year. The aim is to climb three mountains (Stob Ban, Scotland, Helvellyn, England and Snowdon, Wales) in 24 hours. And for each team to raise £5000 while doing it. Pete had thought this sounded fun (he'd just been whacked in the head by Claires racket and wasn't feeling quite himself) and joined Rotaract shortly afterwards. This brought the Rotaract team up to eight members. Six walkers and two drivers. As £5000 is rather a lot of money, Deben Rotaract realised that just going to their mates with a sponsorship form was probably not going to come close. Hence the need for other, supplementary fund raising events. It should at this point be mentioned that there is no intention for the team to dress as superheroes while walking the mountains. They might be eccentric, but they'd rather not be eccentric and cold. Speaking of cold, our friends are on the move once more. Heading with all possible speed towards their next pub. Supergirl in particular is suffering, as it is the middle of March, and if you.ve ever seen Supergirl, you.ll know what the problem is.

The various superheroes soon start to get into the swing of things. Passing people on their way from pub to pub with calls of .Keeping the streets safe, sir. and .Save you later!. makes for it's own entertainment. Although Spiderman (Alan) has made it quite clear to Robin (Mark) that if he precedes one more phrase with the word .holy. then the only website Robin will feature on again will be one of Spidermans own making. Using his super-vision (and a printed list) to spot the next pub, Superman (Alastair) leads the way on.

Super-vision, is of course, something that people don't have, but most make do with normal-vision. Some, however, are less blessed, and lack vision entirely. There can be many reasons for this, and the good news is that most of these are preventable or treatable. So long as you live in the UK, Europe, America or various other places on a thankfully long list. Alas, the list does not cover everywhere, and many people in the 3rd world are needlessly, pointlessly, blind. Sightsavers International is a charity trying to do something about this. They go round preventing blindness where they can (eg River Blindness vaccinations), curing it if they can (£17 pays for a cataract operation), and for those who really can't be cured, they help become productive members of their community. Of course, in a crowded, noisy, Ipswich pub, a shortened version of the above had to suffice, as our Justice League of Rotaractors tried to collect money. One thing that helped was the collection tins kindly lent them by Deben Rotary club. These tins (plastic really) had the Rotary International logo on the side, and the club was pleasantly surprised at how many people recognised this and were willing to give money on that impression alone.

As the evening continued it occurred to the gang that, while sending someone in ahead of the rest to alert the bar staff of the imminent invasion of costumed crime fighters, it was perhaps time to start sending Ian in. Up until this point it has seemed a good idea for Michelle to go in first, simply for her highly practiced super-power of being able to fight her way to the bar in record time. Unfortunately, in her Zorro outfit, this did mean that someone with a black mask, black cloak, black moustache and a sword was walking into a pub explaining she wanted money.

Many photos were taken. Many leaflets explaining the exercise were handed out. Many drinks were bought. And much fun was had. £350 was collected during the evening, and Deben Rotaract got to dress up in spandex and walk around in public. So on the whole, a great event. While two weeks in a row might be too much, it's unlikely to of been the final night such an event takes place.

See the Pub Crawl pictures and video. For shorter descriptions about some of our past events, click here For full writeups of some of our other trips (often including more fancy dress - worrying that); The RGBI Conference 2007 - A weekend in Watford, with Christmas Down Under and Miss Rotaract UK. Back To Front 2006 - Not an event to get cross when dressing up. Holiday in Amsterdam - Forign travel, to a city of culture. And a cool Red Light district. Banbury Camping 2006 - Christmas comes early! The Mountain Challenge weekend - The main event. 24 hours of up and down the hills. The Mountain Challenge training week in the Lake District. Getting fit for the Mountain Challenge. The RGBI Conference 2006 in the Lake District. Treasure hunt pubcrawls, presentations by Deben and the Aliens of Rendlesham Forest. The Superhero Charity Pubcrawl raised money for our Mountain Challenge Sightsavers project. The Back to Front party took Deben to Bournemouth. With lots of other Rotaractors we did stuff backwards. Banbury Camping 2005 brought 200 Rotaractors and friends together for a weekend of fun and campness. The RGBI Conference 2005 was in Bristol, and Rotaractors from all over the UK met up for the annual conference. A serious weekend, with spacehopper races. Messing Around in Boats - Debens trip on the Norfolk Broads. We'd love to hear from you if you are interested in coming to an event, or if you are a local charity or community project and would like our assistance. We'd also like to hear from you if you have any feedback on the web site. Deben Rotaract contacts: Email: enquiries@debenrotaract.org.uk Call Dan on 07740165109 or Tash on 01473721153

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