Rag week fundraising down 50% on last year

This year’s DCU Rag week has so far managed to raise less than half of what was made from last year’s fundraising period.

Events held during the week raised just €6,000 for charity. The money will be divided among three charities – the DCU Annual Fund, Youth Release and BodyWhys. Despite not reaching the target of €17,000 Robin Cafolla, chair of the DCU Students’ Union Charity Committee, still believes this was a great achievement.

“So far we have almost €6,000 in and we’ve been promised enough to get us to €7,000. I think that’s a good amount considering the current economic climate,” he said.

As well as this, there was a clear drop in large fundraising events this year as the bigger clubs and societies failed to make their mark. According to Cafolla, this was to be expected.

“Last year was an extremely good year with a large number of big events run outside Rag week (such as UniGalway) and so there is an expected drop in donations.

“In previous years clubs like Surf and Sail and Juggle Soc raised thousands through outside events but such efforts were not repeated this year,” he added.

Money will continue to be raised for the Rag week charities until the end of the academic year. “The money probably won’t be handed over to the charities until the end of the year. That’s because we’re waiting for societies to hand over the money they collected during Rag week and also because there will be a number of smaller fundraising efforts between now and the end of the year,” Cafolla said.

However, the money will not be divided equally between the three chosen charities. DCU Annual Fund will receive €2,000, and the rest of the money will be divided between Youth Release and BodyWhys.

Last year, the week was mired in controversy over money raised for a charity and students being both arrested and hospitalised.

Controversy was caused last year when it was revealed that one of the charities ‘Moving Mountains’ was unaware they were a chosen charity. This year however, all charities were notified in advance and were delighted to be chosen.

A huge variety of events both day and night, ranging from paintballing, sumo wrestling, silent discos, and the ‘dunk tank,’ entertained students throughout the week.

The main event, Moxygen – a mock Oxygen festival – held in the Helix, proved to be the climax of the week’s fundraising activities.

Major tribute acts including the Antarctic Monkeys, Maybe Whinehouse and The Kaiser Thiefs took to the stage on the night. However, some students felt the event was “far too spread out and it was hard to get to the acts”, with many students unable to get into the Mahony Hall all night.

Meanwhile, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ on Tuesday night, organised by DCU Dance Soc, DCU Drama and the SU, raised over €500 for the Rag week fund. Kirsten Asmussen, a second year IR student, says it was money well spent. “It was gas - great fun. I would definitely pay to see that again.”

The SU were happy to see the Rag trip discontinued this year, after one girl was hospitalised and two others arrested during last year’s trip. The SU believe it was not missed as “it was attended by a very small portion of the student body and was becoming too big a risk to our students to continue.”