Alan Sugar – eat your heart out! Students in Newcastle have proved themselves to be budding entrepreneurs after responding to an innovative fundraising challenge from The Children’s Foundation charity.Sponsored by UK shopping giant intu, owners of Gateshead’s intu Metrocentre and Newcastle’s intu Eldon Square, the charity challenged teams of students to see who could make the most out of a £25 investment.
The ‘Take 25’ challenge was accepted by nine groups of students, from Northumbria University, Newcastle University and Newcastle College. Each team received a starting pot of £25, with the aim to make as much money as possible in a 4 week period, with funds going towards the vital work of The Children’s Foundation, which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year.
A total of £2,036.79 was raised, from an overall investment of £225 between 9 teams. As a reward for all their hard work, all participating teams celebrated at a fun night out at Empress Bar in Newcastle, where they discovered how well they had done. Northumbria came out top as the winning university, raising £1,507.53 in total. The winning team, again from Northumbria, composed of Katie Yewdall, Meg Cookson, Charlotte Steele and Bethany Powell, raised £521.50, by taking part in street collections, cake sales, a games night and a sponsored entry into a pre-drinks event before a night out.
Katie Yewdall from the winning team said:
“As a group we’ve had so much fun fundraising for The Children’s Foundation this past month. We first saw about the project on a poster at Northumbria University and jumped at the chance to get involved and hopefully beat Newcastle in the process. We held some really fun events, including a party at our house whereby we turned the front room into a mini club and got everyone to pay to get in. It was a fantastic way to get money off students (who are notoriously stingy) and we were able to get it sponsored by Smirnoff which topped off the night. We also held bake sales at Northumbria Business School and a games night which was a really fun way of getting all our friends together. Altogether we had a lot of fun and winning was the absolute icing on the cake. We had a rough idea of how much we’d made throughout the time, however raising over £500 for such a good cause was absolutely amazing!”
Jonathan Clegg, Community & Events Fundraiser, for The Children’s Foundation, added:
“As we are celebrating 25 years as a charity, we were thinking of fun things to do around the number 25, and we loved the idea of the ‘Take 25’ challenge which we were able to deliver thanks to our sponsors intu. The teams all came up with fun ideas to raise funds, including a Twitter competition, and a fun FB photo opportunity where each team was challenged to take a wacky picture at either intu Eldon Square or intu Metrocentre, and the team receiving the most likes won an additional prize! This was our first year running the Take 25 campaign and we have been thrilled with how much money the students have raised. From a £25 budget the teams have all been creative in their unique fundraising efforts and we are very impressed by their dedication.”
Karen Carr, intu regional marketing manager, North, commented:
“This is a fun and innovative way to raise funds for The Children’s Foundation, the leading children’s healthcare charity in the North East of England, funding research and practical interventions to improve the health and well-being of children and young people in the region. intu is delighted to be able to support ‘Take 25’ and congratulates all of the students taking part who obviously worked very hard indeed! As well as enjoying the entrepreneurial experience this challenge brings, the winning team won 4 x £100 intu gift cards – perfect timing for the festive season!”