Lancashire Business School students have raised over £1,000 for charity a part of their studies.
Sports and Leisure and Tourism and Hospitality students were set tasks on two separate modules all with the same aim – to organise an event that will raise money for the Green Gecko Project, a charity helping street kids in Cambodia.
The total raised so far is £1,266 from the Sports and Leisure students who completed an event management module and will present a cheque to a representative from Green Gecko on the 19th March. Tourism and Hospitality students have been set a target of a further £2,000.
Claire Brown was part of a group that organised a five as-side football tournament.
Motivational
She said: “Knowing that your raising money to help others was a big motivational tool for me. I am glad I was a part of this experience. I think it has helped me to step up to another level regarding my confidence and individual ability.”
Events ranged from a valentine’s date auction to a Wild West night to a balloon race and all have raised a considerable amount of money.
Rod Train, a lecturer in Sports and Events, said: “This was a great opportunity for the students to put their theory into practice and also raise money for a good cause. Overall I was really impressed with all of the groups.”
Brett Boniface and his team held a Valentine’s Date Auction to raise cash. He said: “We had to organise a budget, decide what we wanted to do, how to market our event, get prizes for free off various places, find a suitable venue and get people to take part in it. I now realise how much goes into organising events and how much is involved.”
Nichola Parkinson’s group held a Slave Auction and she said raining money for charity was the best part of the module.
Awareness
“Raising money for a less known charity was excellent, as it raised the Green Gecko awareness. When giving money people tend to give to the major charities, however doing this was excellent as it made people see that there are many more charities out there that need help too.”
Matthew Sharples, Emma Langworth and Denny Rankin were the first Tourism and Hospitality students to hold their event and decided to release over 300 balloons outside of the university. People paid £2 per balloon and the group is hoping to raise over £250 in total for Green Gecko.
Matthew said: “Everything seems to have gone smoothly and thankfully the weather is on our side so there were no hiccups when we let the balloons go. The response to what we’ve done has been really positive.”
The Green Gecko Project is an initiative founded to help street children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Its main aim is to “empower children with skills and education to enable them to support themselves and their families in safe and suitable way” and provide shelter and stability for the children and their families.
More events are yet to be held, including a Greek theme night and a photography session on the 28th and 29th March offering students the chance to keep a memoir of their time at university.
Craig Ponsford and his group are organising the photography session.
He said: “The idea of the event is to give students the opportunity to have photos taken of them with their friends who they have met during their time here at UCLan and to give them a lasting memory.
“I think it is a great opportunity for university students to raise money and by incorporating the fundraising into one of the tourism modules, it gives the students the chance to make a difference to people less fortunate than ourselves and we will hopefully raise enough money to help the children involved in the Green Gecko Project. I am sure that I won’t be speaking just for myself in saying that to raise money for a charity such as the Green Gecko Project makes you feel proud and like you have made a real difference in changing someone's life.”
