This year’s Raise and Give (RAG) week raised over £2,000, according to Emma Devine, the Student’s Union’s communications officer. The SU are yet to announce which charity will be receiving what amount of money. It was being raised for various charities, such as Help for Heroes, Nomad Trust, and Lincolnshire Trust for Cats.
The event took a different structure this year with each day of the first week of February raising money for a different charity. Throughout the week the sports and societies teams raised money exclusively for Whizz Kids.
There were various events such as a James Bond Casino night in the Tower Bars, a 24 hour car challenge, and a Rag Duck Race on the Brayford, as well as people living in a box for a day. The Student’s Union said: “This year’s RAG week was the most successful to date, raising an immense amount of money that we look to improve year on year. Everybody involved put in a huge amount of hard work and effort.”
However, many students said they were not fully aware that RAG week was happening. Also some of the events were either cancelled, such as the Dancing Lotus performance, due to previous commitments, and the Raid of Town, which was planned for Wednesday but had to be rescheduled due to permissions issues. The Student’s Union said: “Neither the Union nor RAG have received any negative feedback about the specific events or the week as a whole. RAG’s initiative is to not only raise money for their elected charities but to raise the awareness of the Society and Committee throughout the academic year.”
On top of those events, student representatives from each course were encouraged to raise money for the Haiti appeal. They were told to “have as much fun as possible and collect as much as possible” whilst collecting money for the victims of the earthquake that happened in January.