United Kingdom
participants
ESN UofG hosted a 'ceilidh' - a traditional Scottish event with music and dancing - to help raise awareness and some donations for the charity UNICEF and the work they do to help vulnerable children throughout the world, and to help integrate students into Scottish culture, as most Scottish people grow up knowing ceilidh dances! The event was a celebration of local culture as it coincided with St. Andrew's Day, the celebration of the Scottish patron saint. As this event is quite physically demanding, we raised awareness of staying hydrated through Responsible Party.
A 'ceilidh' is a traditional Scottish social gathering, which involves Gaelic folk music and dances. We hosted this event at our university with a live band and a teacher for the dances. This event was organised with the Glasgow University UNICEF on Campus society, who gave a talk about their work at the ceilidh to help us better raise awareness of what the organisation does for vulnerable children in the UK and worldwide. GU Unicef also organised a stall with a bake sale and pop-up photobooth for anyone who wished to donate money to the organisation or to find out more about them. During the ceilidh, everyone was taught how to dance various traditional Scottish dances - which are very fast and physically demanding! ESN volunteers welcomed people on the night by handing out Responsible Party merchandise and water, to remind them to drink water and stay hydrated. We also made a speech at the beginning to remind them of this. To help with financing this activity, we applied and were awarded a grant from our university. This allowed us to donate all of the money made from ticket sales to UNICEF.
We were able to raise over £300 to donate to UNICEF through ticket sales and donations on the night. The students learned about the important work that UNICEF does and how they can get involved in helping out. Everyone had lots of fun learning about the most traditional way to celebrate an event in Scotland, and the dances that come with it!