Lacrosse team shelled up at sports night for missing Eugene the tortoise

The Lacrosse team shined up their shells last night to help bring Eugene home.

The squad ditched their usual outlandish fancy dress to show their support for valued team member Dan and his lost tortoise Eugene, who was taken from under his heat lamp on Alton Road over a week ago.

Lacrosse player Katie O’Rourke told The Tab the team was heartbroken when they heard Dan’s story and explained why they chose to dress as Eugene this week.

Heroes in a half shell

Eugene is that you?

She said: “We want other people to be aware of how sad it is Eugene has been taken from his home.”

The team wore glitter, face paint and colanders on their backs to spread the message #GetEugeneHome.

Katie praised her team member’s dedication to the cause, adding: “People took the theme really well. Everyone got really into it and it was great to see everyone in full force supporting the cause to help raise awareness for Eugene.”

The fancy dress was to keep people talking about Eugene, and according to Katie it appears to be working.

“We all had #GetEugeneHome written on us in Sharpie. Most people had read about it and came up to us saying ‘I’ve heard about that, it’s so sad’.”

Even Eugene’s owner Dan took part in dressing up as his lost tortoise on the night.

#GetEugeneHome

Dan told The Tab about the supportive response he received at sports night.

He said: “It was nice. People kept coming up to me and saying nice things and stuff.

“Dressing up as Eugene for sports night will have brought the story back to the forefront of people’s minds as over a week has passed and people may be forgetting about it now.

“It’s probably made people who had heard about it but were not bothered about it care more than they previously did.

“One of the girls bought me a tortoise teddy as well which was cute.”

Work that colander

Where are you Eugene?

The response couldn’t have been better, but Eugene is still out there and needs to be returned to the warmth of his heat lamp soon.