Level 3 Travel and Tourism students from the College of West Anglia’s King’s Lynn designed and hosted an escape room in order to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society.

The student-led event was  planned by the Travel and Tourism students, who wanted to engage both staff and students with the college, while creating, marketing and hosting an event as part of their course.

The Alzheimers’ Society was chosen by the students after they found out about Visit Britain’s latest campaign to raise awareness of dementia and help the tourism business provide dementia-friendly holidays. The students decided to host the event in order to raise money for the charity. 

The escape room was called ‘Escape the … Island!’ and students created their own backstory, which involved an emergency plane landing on the nearest deserted island with deadly animals and limited resources. Participants had to complete a series of puzzles to eventually find the key to the life-raft that will get them off the island. Teams had thirty minutes to complete the challenges and escape the island.

The event took place over three days and saw over 135 students and staff members participate. The students raised £376.02 from the event. All proceeds will be given to their chosen charity the Alzheimer's Society.

One student said: “The escape room as we were able to raise money for a charity we wanted to help, while having fun. It was definitely an experience to remember.”

Student Caitlin Lord said: “Our escape room went amazingly well as we raised more money than expected for a deserving charity. We all had a lot of fun planning the escape room and working together as one big team.”

Course director of the travel and tourism level 2 course, Nicola Leadley, said: “The students developed new skills in planning and hosting the event and were thrilled by it’s success. Requests for another escape room challenge have already been received.”