Last Monday Newcastle University Students’ Union’s Raising and Giving (RAG) society held their annual speed dating event. The evening was hosted by the RAG committee and presented by student Max Fosh.
The speed dating event was organised in aid of Orchid, a UK-based charity devoted to research and treatment in men’s cancers. Orchid was selected by RAG’s executive committee which consists of Co-Presidents Harry Young and Liam Day, Treasurer Alice Nicholl and Secretary Samantha Ree.
When explaining how the executive committee came to choose Orchid, Samantha Ree said: “Orchid made the shortlist when we were selecting which charities to raise funds for during RAG Week. Because it was not chosen we decided to dedicate the speed dating event to this charity”.
Committee member Stephanie Redfearn led the organisation of the event of which 185 students attended. Through a combination of ticket sales and general donations, a grand total of £750 was raised on the evening.
Hayley Allen, MA Critical Geopolitics student and Event Leader on RAG Committee, attended the evening and remarked: “Speed dating was so much fun. Although I didn’t meet the love of my life, I had such a funny night and it’s great to know that so much money was raised for such a worthy charity”.
Commenting on the event Harry Young, said: “The night was great fun. As a committee we are really happy with how the evening panned out and we had a great turnout even though the weather was terrible.
“All the events we’ve hosted so far this year have gone really well and speed dating was a prime example of this. We fulfilled our goal of exceeding last year’s numbers for speed dating and in general, we are ahead of our fundraising targets which is great because it means we’ve got large sums of money to send to the charities we have chosen to support this year”.
This academic year RAG is set to hold its annual ‘Raising And Giving Week’ from 28 January to 3 February 2017. All proceeds raised during this week will be donated to the six charities RAG have selected to support this year: Water for Kids, Anti-Slavery International, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Mind, Great North Air Ambulance and The Alan Shearer Foundation.
This week RAG are holding auditions for their annual Fashion Show which will take place on 16 March 2017. Auditions will be held at the Students’ Union in the Planning Room from 3pm until 6pm Monday 28 - Wednesday 30 November.