As part of the Adopt A Charity Scheme, the Young Greens, Disco Society and Underground Music Society took over Drapers on April 1st to raise money for two fantastic causes: the UK's leading dementia support charity, Alzheimer’s Society, and Redthread, a youth work organisation supporting young people in London. In total they raised £2,466.09!
The society to raise the most money as part of the scheme this year were the Young Greens, with a total of £8,334.44 given to various charitable organisations. We asked Georgia Miller, President of the Queen Mary Young Greens, about their involvement in the scheme.
Why did you got involved with the Adopt a Charity scheme?
We got involved in the scheme sort of by accident; two of our friends approached us to help them do a 90's club night in Drapers in aid of Positive East on World AIDS Day which sounded like an awesome idea so we decided to make it a larger event with a bake sale for Positive East during the day. It was such a success and so much fun that we decided to keep rolling with it, raising as much for charity as we could with our subsequent 00's, FLAWLESS, C'est La Vie and Summer of Love nights. Disco Society really deserve all the credit for pioneering the model as they really opened up the possibility for student groups to raise money through the facilities we have in Drapers and more widely in the Students' Union.
What have you most enjoyed about taking part?
It has been so amazing to see other societies contributing their own events, for example QMEquality with their Festival 51 closing party featuring female fronted live bands. For me the best part has been the camaraderie between the societies who all come together to raise money for charity and to have a good night - special mention to Underground Music Society and Disco Society for making our Summer of Love event at the end of Semester Two an absolute banger. I can only hope that next year even more will organise events to make Drapers fundraisers a staple in the Students' Union calendar! The RAG team have been endlessly supportive of us and Emma (Student Activities Coordinator) especially has really encouraged us to reach our fundraising potential which has made everything so much easier and more fun. I am so proud of how much our society and the other societies raised this year and hope that we can continue to make a difference with our work.
What you would say to other societies thinking about taking part?
I feel that getting involved in Adopt a Charity really enriches a society's place in Students’ Union life as it gives members a chance to benefit others in the process of their own events. It's also a valuable experience in terms of learning about the difficulties in fundraising and also learning about different charities' work. The RAG team have made it so easy for people to get involved by being so approachable and minimising the paperwork for societies to complete so that it can really be about raising money and having fun. Working with charities, especially local ones, also helps foster relationships between the university and the local community which I feel is very valuable in itself. What we have found is varying events and coming up with new and innovative ideas really help catch people's interests and ensure a large attendance (which generally equals more money raised) so originality is key!