The summer is sure to be full of adventure and surprise for one Texas Tech law student who will be traveling from London to Mongolia in the name of charity.
Andy Taylor, a first-year law student from Fort Worth, said he will be representing Team SkipLizard, the first squad from Texas to participate in the Mongol Rally, a car race spanning 10,000 miles, seven mountain ranges, three deserts and 23 countries.
According to a press release for the rally, Taylor and his team partner, Ryan Dunnavant, will travel from London to France on a ferry before driving through Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and 16 other countries to reach their destination of Mongolia.
The trick of the rally, which is in its sixth year, is all 200 participating teams have to drive in a maximum one-liter car, which is roughly equivalent to a four-cylinder engine. This teaches teams survival skills because there is no guarantee the small vehicles will withstand the journey.
The teams are comprised of a variety of people, Taylor said. There is a mix of both men and women, and each team has two members; there are nine American teams participating in the event this year.
"The 200 spots went in under 30 seconds," Taylor said. "We were very fortunate to get a spot in the rally."
Taylor said his main motivation for taking part in the rally was to gain a global perspective, and he feels others will benefit in enormous ways. All the money the individual teams raise for the rally will go to charity except funds allotted for gas and food to be consumed on the trip. Additionally, each team will donate its car to a Mongolian charity at the trip's conclusion.
Taylor said the entry fee for the rally was a donation to a Mongolian charity, and if he and his teammate are able to raise more money than what is needed to cover their bare essentials, they will donate the remaining money to Cook Children's Hospital in Dallas.
Taylor said if every Tech student donated a dollar, it would add up to three or four times the amount they need to get from London to Mongolia.
"We are looking for all types of sponsors from airline sponsors and automotive parts sponsors to someone who will provide decal logos for our sponsors on our car," Taylor said. "We would love to have Texan sponsors, as we are the first Texan team and one of the very few American teams to ever try this."
Tasha Nisttahuz, a first-year law student from Arlington and Taylor's girlfriend, said she is excited for Taylor because the only time he has ever been out of the country was a trip he took to Mexico.
She said students should make donations to the team because they will not only be supporting the adventure of two men, they will be supporting a good cause.
"I am just excited that (Taylor) and Ryan are doing it," Nisttahuz said. "They both are survivors, and Ryan has traveled extensively all over the world."
The Mongol Rally begins on July 21, and according to the rally's Web site at http://mongolrally.instituteofadventureresearch.com/, the rally is a part of the League of Adventurists, a group striving to make the world less boring while raising large amounts of money for charity in the process.
Tech students who would like to donate and find more information can visit Team SkipLizard's Web site at www.skiplizard.com or e-mail Taylor at andrew.c.taylor@ttu.edu.
"We make no profit and are not out to make any money on this," Taylor said. "All of our funds, other than the things we have to have, will be going to charity."
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