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23 September 2015
Rally for Charity
Last week, Atlas Account Manager Martin Berk and his friend Joost Wagemaker completed the R.A.P Amsterdam rally to raise funds for Riga’s Municipality’s Children and Youth Centre (RPBJC). Martin talks to Atlas about their journey and the unconventional rules of the rally.
Rebuilding the RPBJC
“We flew from Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport to Riga and waited for our first set of instructions,” explains Martin. “We then travelled by bus to the charity’s location and started to prepare for our charity work the next day.
The next morning we started to paint all of the walls of the building, inside and out. Also several walls had to be constructed inside to create more rooms for residents. There are currently 14 girls living in the building, but now, with the new rooms this capacity has doubled.”
The funds raised by Martin and Joost were used to buy materials to furnish the building, however, with some money left over, the two men were able to buy presents for all the kids and organise an evening BBQ. The next day, Martin and Joost started the rally.
R.A.P’s Unique Rally challenges
“The organisation had arranged for us to drive a Fiat 126; a really small car with a top speed of 105km/h and a 0-60 time of 53 seconds,” laughs Martin. “After the organisers had explained the rules, they sealed our phones in a box and we received our first envelope with a map inside. For our first challenge Joost had to drive two laps of a circuit with me as his passenger. However, my task was to hold a glass of Martini without spilling it in the car. This was just one of the many great challenges we had to complete whilst driving through Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.”
Other challenges included, making selfies, solving riddles, swimming in fountains, milking cows, high-fiving police, abseiling and organising a picnic for complete strangers.
Supported by Atlas Professionals
Although the tasks for Martin and Joost seemed unconventional, the two men raised over 1000 Euro for the charity, with support from Atlas Professionals.
“Overall, we finished 5th out of 15, which was a great result for our first rally. However, for 2017 we’re aiming for 1st place.”
To find out more about the R.A.P Rally please click here to go to their official website.
