The Hold Fast Challenges
My name is Rob Hinton and I am a Royal Navy Mine Clearance Diver Veteran.
I grew up in the bustling metropolis of Barnstaple, in North Devon, and was a competitive swimmer, and keen rugby player as a young man.
I travelled the world, and learnt to dive in Capetown, South Africa, in 1999, and soon afterwards joined the Royal Navy to follow my dream to become a Royal Navy Mine Clearance and Bomb Disposal Diver.
I have lived an adventurous, active, and exciting life, and have constantly lived with the benefits of working, and exercising outside, in the water, and on land.
I am extremely passionate about the mental and physical health, and values of our young people and future generations.
I created the Hold Fast Challenges in September 2021 with a mission to build a wonderful community of ultra positive people, with an amazing mindset that spreads throughout society.
The challenges are designed to inspire everyone, and to pass on a strong, resilient, positive mindset for all. They are a unifying, exciting, fun, and a hugely rewarding experience.
We have had huge success with our schools, and university, young people, on the challenges, and many, many, success stories where pupils and students have used their amazing challenge experiences to benefit themselves and others.
We have a 100%, 5 star, review rating from over fifty challenges across the UK.
We aim to offer all high schools in the UK an opportunity to bring their young people along to locations in England and Scotland, where they can experience a superbly exciting outdoor, land, and water based, challenge day.
The challenge sees participants in wetsuits, and wetsuit boots, with swim fins, taking on a dynamic, fun, activity day in mini teams, and as individuals. It is a fantastically positive experience for all.
They will be running, jumping, finning, swimming, carrying logs, carrying OPPO's (Water filled containers) bodyweight exercises, and much more!
The challenge itself is all about the mindset, not about fitness levels.
We pass on our ethos.
No fuss
No excuses
Just get it done.
The Hold Fast team are simply brilliant. They are made up of Veterans from all branches of the the UK's armed forces, and wonderful people from throughout society who love to give back. They love what they do, and get huge satisfaction from seeing people inspired by the challenges.
The Hold Fast Mission is to get every state high school pupil access to a Hold Fast Challenge during their time at school.
This is absolutely critical during their formative teenage years.
Young peoples mental and physical health is of paramount importance, and for these pupils this opportunity is priceless.
The benefits of a Hold Fast Challenge -
The Hold Fast Challenges give young people all of the below.
Pride
Self Confidence
Joy
Achievement
Leadership
Mental health
Physical fitness
Communication
Teamwork
Memories
We have many testimonials from our amazing young people, who have seized our mindset, and the qualities that Hold Fast offers, and adopted them for their everyday life.
It cannot be over emphasised how valuable a challenge day experience is to a young person who might be needing a boost of confidence or self esteem, or even direction, and encouragement.
What your funds will be used for and why do we need them? -
Hold Fast Elite ltd is a small company. The cost of running our challenges is significant. At this point in time we simply cannot generate the type of income to support our growth the way we would like to. Our passion is to get our challenges to our high schools in 2025, as soon as possible.
The funds raised from this crowdfunding will enable us to offer challenges to a minimum of 20 high schools across the UK in 2025, who might never have the chance to offer their young people such an inspiring day.
The funds will pay for challenge itself, as well as transport, and food.
Each state school that steps forward for a challenge day can bring 50+ pupils from age 13 years upwards. They all get a Hold Fast t-shirt, and food afterwards.
The funds will also be used to grow Hold Fast Elite ltd, increase our reach, expand our locations, and make us more accessible to everyone in the UK.
Our vision is to get all high schools in the UK engaged in our Hold Fast community.
The pupils who take part can then become ambassadors for Hold Fasts values and mindset, and spread that awesome positivity onwards.
It is a wonderful project and the results will be visible for years to come!