Students on the Events Management, Arts and Entertainment and Experiential Marketing courses have raised over £40,000 for Food Works, Sheffield Museums Trust and Cavendish Cancer Care through a series of virtual fundraising events.
The students began their projects in autumn 2020, when it was still unclear whether any of the events would be in person or online. They overcame the unprecedented challenges that the lockdown period provided to deliver a range of events that included murder mysteries, a vintage clothes auction, a cook-along, dog shows, an e-sports sim-racing event, health and wellbeing events, personal challenges and holographic musical bingo.
One group, the Challenge 7 team, consisting of Jess Winterton, Adam Sidaway, Karrie Petty, Ashley Loy and Becky Way, managed to raise £11,000 for Cavendish Cancer Care. They achieved this by asking people to set themselves challenges based around the number 7 (representing the 7 hills of Sheffield), donate the money raised and then the group hosted an online event to celebrate all the achievements of those who took part.
The Challenge 7 team said: “The support from the team at Sheffield Hallam was amazing, most notably our lecturer Jane Tattersall, who was always on hand to support and guide us. Further to that, Jonny Cole (Head of Fundraising at Cavendish) was a great help, with his knowledge and experience really assisting to develop Challenge 7 into the great success it became.”
Connie Sutton, a member of the Roaring Occasions team who raised £4,500 by producing a virtual murder mystery event, said: “We definitely feel the overall project was a huge success. This will remain a highlight of our degree and something we will always remember. We are incredibly proud of raising over £4500 - knowing it's going towards an amazing charity really makes all the hard work worth it.”
Module leader Jane Tattersall said: “I want to say a huge thank you to our amazing charities, Food Works, Sheffield Museums Trust and Cavendish Cancer Care, without their support we would not be able to do the things we do. We also appreciate the generosity of Sheffield businesses who donated prizes to be raffled and auctioned to raise extra funds, and of course the public for buying tickets and giving so much.
“This is the thirteenth year of students creating fundraising events to complete their degrees, and as a cohort they have generated more funds per person than in any previous year.”
Jonny Cole, Head of Fundraising at Cavendish Cancer Care, said: “It’s once again been a privilege to be invited to work with the final year students on their live event module, building on many years of successful partnership between Cavendish Cancer Care and the BSc (Hons) Events Management course.
“The amount of money they have raised is phenomenal and I speak for the whole organisation when I say that we are all inspired by the hard work and commitment that the students have put into their efforts to support us. The money raised by the students will cover all the costs of keeping one of our therapy rooms at the Tim Pryor Centre open for a whole year and also provide all the therapy delivered within this room. This is such a valuable gift to give to local families affected by cancer and something all the students and lecturers should be incredibly proud of. We couldn’t be more grateful for their support.”
All the students’ hard work was celebrated at a virtual awards event ‘Here’s to Us’ organised by a group of Events Management students on Tuesday 27th April, with live music streamed from The Mega Centre in Sheffield.
