Universities across Canada depicted their Shinerama fundraising experiences in videos this year as part of a challenge run by Nuance Leadership Development Services Inc.
Shinerama is Canada’s largest post-secondary fundraiser dedicated to collecting funds and raising awareness for cystic fibrosis. Shinerama has raised $21.5 million for the cause since its inception in 1964.
Although the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) participates in Shinerama fundraising annually during orientation week, they did not take part in the challenge. CUSA could not be reached for comment.
Six universities: The University of Western Ontario, the University of Regina, Queen’s University, the University of Ottawa, Mount Allison University and Brock University, were named finalists. The winner will be determined by voting.
Drew Dudley, founder of Nuance Leadership and former director of the national Shinerama campaign, said he wanted to start the video contest so students would have time to reflect on their experience during the fundraising campaign.
“A lot of things get learned when you take a second to reflect on them,” Dudley said. “There’s also a really strong community effort during the campaign but [students] never really see each other again after [the original campaign].”
Dudley said the competition also provided an opportunity to collect videos to show the country what the Shinerama campaign is all about.
William Joyce, a fourth-year general arts student at the University of Ottawa, was in charge of U of O’s video challenge. He is also the philanthropic commissioner for the university’s Faculty of Arts, which was the lone faculty to participate in the challenge, he said.
This is Joyce’s second year volunteering with the faculty. The vice-president chair of the faculty asked him to be the philanthropic commissioner at the beginning of the summer.
“I took it on and put my own spin to [Shinarama],” Joyce said.
With 1,800 votes, Joyce said he was was surprised and happy to see that Ottawa was ahead in the polls. Western is just behind with about 1,700 votes, he said.
“Our faculty had a great video. We have a very unique experience to show,” Joyce said. “We submitted it and it’s sort of my reflection of what we’ve accomplished.”
The video shows Joyce along with other U of O students talking about what they’re doing to fundraise as well as why they feel Shinerama is an important fundraising initiative.
In future years, Joyce said he hopes the U of O can work together in the challenge with Carleton to represent Ottawa as a whole. Joyce said he thinks this is a great opportunity for Ottawa’s two universities to come together.
The university with the most votes on their video will receive a $1,000 donation by Nuance Leadership for their school’s Shinerama fundraising.
