Chris Jenord is the organiser of an event in Somerset called The Ancestor’s Trail where people, especially non-believers, walk a branching network of footpaths representing Darwin’s ‘Tree of life’.
Inspired by Richard Dawkins’ book the Ancestor’s Tale, the event has been described as a ‘secular pilgrimage’ celebrating our shared ancestry with all life and raising money for nature conservation.
This will be the third ‘Trail’ event and is scheduled for the 25th-26th August.
As part of this event Chris has to organise speakers to discuss evolutionary biology and biodiversity in a local venue.
The whole event is financed through an online crowd-sourcing website called Crowdfunder.
The ‘pitch’ is now live and already counting down.
Essentially, the ‘pitch total’ needs to be reached by the expiry date for the event to happen.
If not, everyone who has invested gets their money back.
The pitch offers various all-inclusive accommodation packages especially designed for folks coming from further afield.
It’s a long way from Lancaster I know, but last year people were welcomed from Devon, Dorset, London, Norfolk, Yorkshire and even the USA and so the organisers thought such longer distance travellers may prefer to know about their accommodation well in advance.
A second pitch will open in early June, primarily to allow local people to book the two evening events.
You’ll find all the information you need on the Crowdfunder pitch: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/investment/ancestor-s-trail-2012-358or The Ancestors Trail website: http://ancestorstrail.net/
The crowd-sourcing approach relies on folks spreading the word so, if you know anyone who you consider may be even remotely interested, PLEASE FORWARD THESE DETAILS.

To hear more about our project follow this link to our special Ancestor’s Trail episode on Clare Balding’s BBC R4 Ramblings show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011tsdb. Alternatively, this is the 2011 event video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqnx3f_uHHc