Carleton students took to the streets to cheer, dance, and educate Sept. 5 as they fundraised across Ottawa for the annual cystic fibrosis charity campaign, Shinerama.
This year, Carleton raised $27,000 before the campaign’s major donation day Shine Day even took place. Compared to the $5,000 raised before the day last year, this is a major increase, said Shayla Kelly, the Fall Orientation co-ordinator responsible for organizing the 2014 campaign.
“It’s increased our fundraising efforts by over 100 per cent so we’re really happy about that,” she said.
While the lead up to Shine Day saw donations pouring in, students only raised $7,000 compared to $12,000 last year on the day.
Kelly said this is mostly due to fundraising ending early because many volunteers went to the Redblacks football game.
This year new incentives were introduced to encourage involvement.
Students who participated received a free Redblacks ticket for the Sept. 5 game, had the chance to pose in a group photo on the field, and competed to earn prizes as the top fundraising team.
In total, Carleton students made a donation to Cystic Fibrosis Canada of $32,000, surpassing their goal for the campaign’s 50th anniversary. The money is mostly sent to researchers, but some also goes to help care for people with cystic fibrosis, Kelly said.
During the summer prizes were offered to frosh facilitators, such as the opportunity to choose their t-shirt colour and team name. Kelly said these incentives were new this year and were part of the reason for the massive increase in early fundraising.
“It’s super fun to see all the students around the city raising money for a good cause while having fun at the same time,” said frosh facilitator Nicole Davey, adding that Shine Day is considered a highlight of Fall Orientation by many.
University students across Canada have participated in Shinerama since the 1960s.
In 2008 Carleton made national headlines when the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) decided to end its participation in the Shimerama campaign because they alleged cystic fibrosis was a disease that mostly affected white men.
CUSA later reversed it’s decision and issued an apology. Since then the university has continued it’s annual fundraising efforts.
-with files from Elizabeth Nelson
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