A group of five Lancaster University students have raised hundreds of pounds for charity, having been given 14 days to plan and execute a fundraising event. The group worked alongside the Lancaster University Careers office to raise money for the charities CancerCare UK and Safe Child Africa.
The fundraising event – entitled “Do you aspire to inspire?” – took place on Tuesday Week 6 in Alexandra Square, and was organised by Thea Nygard, Clarence Tan, Kyaw Tun Sein, Syafrullah Hamdi and Sally-Ann Benneh. Some of the students were working on the event in aid of their Lancaster Award.
Nygard told SCAN that the event revolved around selling postcards, “so that people who buy the postcards could write empowering messages on them.” The group aimed to sell 100 postcards in total, with the hope of raising over £300. In this endeavour the group were supported by Anna Webster of CancerCare UK, Lisa Atkinson of Safe Child Africa, and Lyndsey Egerton from the University’s Careers department.
“We would say it has been a great learning experience because we have had the chance to work together as a team, utilizing and complementing each others’ skills to produce a successful event,” Nygard said. “It has been an successful event. As a team we have had the chance to raise both funds and awareness, but also to take part in the beautiful process of inspiring others.
“We have all worked hard planning this event for two weeks now, and we couldn’t have wished for a better result. We even got to enjoy some strokes of sunlight!”
Another member of the group, Sally-Ann Benneh, told SCAN about how the idea for the fundraising event came about. “At a time when students are seriously preparing for exams or working towards coursework deadlines, the five of us took up the challenge to plan a fundraising charity event within two weeks.
“In spite of loosing one team member at the start of the planning process, we put our minds and efforts together to successfully organise a postcard selling event. We also designed the postcards and posters ourselves, and thanks to The Winning Post and Tesco, Lancaster, who donated refreshments and food vouchers, we were able to provide token refreshments and a raffle draw for food vouchers to those who bought our postcards. In all, we would say it has been a great learning experience because we have had the chance to work together as a team, utilizing and complementing each others’ skills to produce a successful event.
“We want to thank all those who came by our stall today, as well as to our local Tesco & The Winning Post for their donations, Fylde College for letting us use their chairs, LUSU for stall and markers, and last but not least CancerCare (Anna Webster), Safe Child Africa (Lisa Atkinson) and Lancaster University Careers (Lyndsey Egerton) for all help and guidance.”
The Lancaster Award is a non-academic award run by the University’s Careers department.
