Emer Gerrard | Staff Writer
RAG week 2014 was the college’s most successful ever, raising up to €5,000 more than the €20,000 target.
Students’ Union Ents Officer, Seán Reynolds, told The University Times that the “final figure could be as high as €25,000”, meaning that the week’s fundraising total is almost double the previous record.
Reynolds attributed the success of this year’s RAG Week to the “fantastic” RAG Week Committee, the many volunteers and a new initiative to involve staff and alumni, through which €1,000 was raised from coffee mornings alone. The headline events (including the RAG Week ball, Trinity Come Dancing and the RAG Week Closing Party) also heavily contributed to the success.
However, despite this positivity, Reynolds was critical of the JCR in Trinity Halls claiming that “there was little support of RAG Week from the JCR” and that this was “disappointing considering the relatively vast financial resources they have at their disposal.”
According to Reynolds, who chaired the RAG Week Committee, another improvement which could be made would be the creation of a “standalone RAG Week website”. He explained that the committee had hoped to introduce a website this year but that “unfortunately due to unforeseen problems it couldn’t be achieved in time.”
Despite the financial difficulties faced by many students, RAG Week has been growing year-on-year. In 2011 it raised €12,000, which was a 300% increase from the previous year. The dramatic increase was seen as a result of students being encouraged to engage in individual projects such as Gumball challenges and sponsored fasts and silences.
Sarah McAvinchey, President of Cancer Soc, who completed a 24-hour silence to raise funds for RAG week, praised the support from both Ents and Trinity volunteering and commented that it was “great to see so many individual fundraisers get involved.” She stated that as a society the support was above that of any other year, concluding “it was the best RAG Week we’ve had since I’ve been in college.”
