Help James & Bethany get to NASA Space School

Hello everyone!

Our names are James Davenport and Bethany James, and we have been selected as this year's Welsh representatives for the prestigious NASA Space Summer School in Houston, Texas. The space school invites around 50 young adults from 25 different countries, so essentially, we will be waving the flag for Wales on an international stage, and we want to show the world what we can do!

We will be travelling to the USA at the end of July and attending the space school for two weeks. This year’s project is ‘A Manned Mission to Mars’- where we will work with others to plan and run a virtual mission to send humans to Mars!

Part of the challenge of attending the space school is to raise the money to cover the full costs of the trip ourselves. Therefore, we kindly ask you as your nation’s representatives to support us in fundraising the costs of the trip.

Both of us will be taking part in events to raise money both individually and together, such as long-distance bike rides across Wales and hockey challenges, 15% of the total donations raised from GoFundMe will be donated to the DPJ Foundation, which is a Welsh mental health charity that supports those working in agriculture and rural communities with mental health problems. (#ShareTheLoad). Here is a link to their website, and more information about the valuable work they do: https://www.thedpjfoundation.co.uk/about-us/

We have both grown up in small rural communities here in Wales and we are very excited to show everyone what it’s like to make the big leap into the unknown and establish ourselves within NASA! On our return, we would love to share our experiences with the local community, and we will hopefully be visiting schools and community groups across the region. We want to inspire those younger than us to also reach for the stars and achieve something astounding!

Please share this with your family and friends to help us spread the word and support our fundraising. We will keep everyone informed about our fundraising efforts and send regular updates here and on social media (Facebook & Instagram) on how we are getting on when we get to America! From both of us, your donations are greatly appreciated, and thank you very much, diolch yn fawr iawn!!