Among the casualties of coronavirus cancellations, fundraisers have been particularly hard hit. Although online adaptability appeared promising during the initial weeks of lockdown, it soon became clear that even the most philanthropic fitness guru couldn’t complete enough 5km runs to keep every cause afloat, with the financial support of online donors tiring in tandem.
Outgoing Trinity Literary Society (LitSoc) Chairperson and recent Trinity English and History Graduate Carol McGill, however, has decided to pull from her immediate skillset to offer an alternative solution in aid of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).
Having been hugely impressed by a “Thrift for RCC” event, organised by Trinity student Zara Fitzgerald in support of the Regional Sexual Abuse & Rape Crisis Centre Tullamore, that she attended just before lockdown, McGill grew increasingly cognisant of the impossibility of similar fundraisers in the immediate future and the effects this may have.
“I think almost every woman has experienced harassment on some level so it’s not as though I’ll never need to use them” McGill points out, speaking to The University Times about the DRCC. “I just believe it’s a really really important cause.”
She also notes that due to prevailing restrictions, many victims of domestic violence may be lacking “the escape routes they might normally have”, thereby making the trojan work of the DRCC all the more valuable at the current moment.
In an attempt to raise much needed funds, McGill is running a short story competition in collaboration with the Dublin-based literary magazine Sonder, which was co-founded by fellow LitSoc and Trinity graduate Sinéad Creedon.
The idea for the competition, McGill explains, sprung from within a LitSoc writing critique group, where a friend of hers “had written a poem about the length of the waiting list for the [DRCC] counselling service”. Inspired by this, and the DRCC’s ethos of communicative support, McGill conceived of the Morning Coffee Writing Competition, with Sonder’s unyielding support.
Entrants are asked to compose a short story of 500-1,000 words, to be submitted alongside an entry fee of €6.50 which will go directly to the DRCC. Multiple entries and/or larger donations are also welcomed. From the entries received, three chosen stories will be published on the Sonder website, with the overall winner also receiving a €20 book voucher and the opportunity to have their story published in Issue IV of Sonder magazine.
The theme has been left open and the organisers have provided no specific prompt although McGill does note that given the sensitivity of the cause at its core, “gratuitous violence is discouraged”.
The “Morning Coffee” competition title, she explains, comes from the idea “that even in dark times, we all hopefully have some nice bright thing to get us out of bed or up in the morning… whether it’s dark times because of lockdown or if you’re someone who needs to use the Rape Crisis Centre services”.
In essence, she encourages prospective writers to realise that “just because it’s a serious, dark cause” doesn’t mean the submission itself, or the energy surrounding it “can’t be something quite hopeful”.
Submissions for the Morning Coffee Writing Competition close on August 31st. More details can be found on the Sonder Magazine website.
