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Wow! What a year! To start off, I’d just like to say an ENORMOUS thank you to everybody; thank you for taking part, for donating and for getting your friends and family involved, either by donating or by sharing what we’re up to as a club and spreading awareness. We kickstarted my tenure as Charities and Welfare with the fun-filled 2019 term three (RIP term three 2020), which included the charity hockey tournament, Summer Sixes, and a charity raffle at our first ever Awards Evening. Summer Sixes is a huge, day-long tournament organised by Ladies’ and Men’s Hockey which gets many different clubs and societies involved to raise money for their clubs’ charities. It had us dressing up as avatars, animals and even emojis, and we placed as runners up for the plate, which was not too shabby at all!  Awards Evening was an evening created by our presidents of 18/19 and 19/20, Mezza and Rads respectively, with the objective of celebrating the year and the achievements of both the club and individual members. Also included in the night was a charity raffle, where money was raised for Coventry Haven through raffle ticket sales for prizes such as free coffee and cake at a Leamington café, Lush gift boxes and circle privileges. A great moment was when Rai won a raffle prize and decided to choose the ‘donate a Purple Angel’ circle privilege, even though he was already a social sec by this point, the silly goose. Summer came and went, but not without a Summer Challenge. Fourteen of us put on our walking boots and took on Scafell Pike, aka the tallest mountain in England (it definitely sounds more impressive when you say it like that).  Scafell Pike team: at the base! We set off in glorious sunshine, the weather was truly quite wonderful, and we got back to our cars just before the sun had fully set. Why did it take us so long to complete the trek? I can’t quite remember, but it may or may not have had something to do with the trip leader deciding to take everybody on a longer return route and almost getting the group lost (the faith the team put into a trip leader who had only a week before learned how to use a compass was quite remarkable). But who knows? We can’t be sure… We finally got back to the hostel, and we had a Maccies feast before a well-deserved sleep. We raised a phenomenal £1,207 for Coventry Haven, which made me so proud of the Summer Challenge team and all the hard work and effort they put in. I hope you all remember the trip as fondly as I do.  Scafell Pike team: at the summit! Term one oversaw a soup kitchen takeover, as Mixed Hockey worked with Helping Hands Community Project (HHCP) in Leamington to feed the homeless and precariously housed in the local area. It was great to work with HHCP and to better understand the issue surrounding homelessness.  Term one also oversaw a Mario Kart tournament on the Big Screen on the Piazza, an idea created by our charities and welfare sec of 18/19, as well as several charity karaoke (or ‘charaoke’ as Nick would say) events, including a Christmas edition. I’m certain everybody who came managed to publicly embarrass themselves one way or another, but that would be the nature of karaoke, so you could say it was a great success! The Mario Kart was incredibly fun and brought out the competitive side of some of our members. It was very interesting to learn of Rads’ devotion to Bowser, at the very least. Big shout out to the random guy that came along, played for a couple hours and beat everybody in pretty much every match he partook in. Solid effort. We finished off the year with some bucket-shaking for HHCP after a pantomime in Leamington and a Christmas present collection for Coventry Haven, so we were clearly feeling the Christmas spirit. The presents we collected were things such as Play-Doh, colouring pencils, children’s clothes and various sweet treats. They were donated to Coventry Haven to be given to families who would otherwise be unable to provide presents to their children, so thank you all for your generosity, you made a lot of families’ Christmas. We then kickstarted 2020 with our January Challenge, which raised a super £235 for Coventry and Warwickshire Mind. We has members partaking in Veganuary and Dry January, as well as pledging to run 15k, eat only British produce, and give up lie-ins, snacking and Vialli’s nuggets (the final one was to actually eat a vegetarian diet throughout January, but the nuggets was what Eve was most sad to give up in order to achieve this). The dedication of everybody who partook was brilliant, I’m so proud of you all! Thank you to the rest of the club for your support and donations, they definitely helped to keep us motivated. Term two oversaw Games Night (aka a night of Kahoot! and Bingo); Charities Week; the annual Charity Club Quiz; a 5k run as part of LGBT+ Awareness Month; and a warehouse takeover. Charities Week was a great opportunity to collaborate with our good pals Mixed Netball and Tennis, as well as trying out their sports, giving Dutty and Saxxy the opportunity to show off their multi-faceted sporting ability.  To end the term, we teamed up with HHCP once more, helping them in their warehouse. Brownie became a modern-day Cinderella for his cleaning duties, Dutty taught Alison about the wonders of mod 12, and we learned that Sarbs is a sore loser when it comes to the plastic bag folding Olympics.  Then, it has to be mentioned, Covid-19 came a-calling, and we’ve been staying safely inside. To try and raise morale during these difficult times, we hosted a quarantine quiz (or a ‘quizantine’) to raise money for NHS Charities Together. We raised £54 from the quiz, which was fantastic, and a great way to raise money to support our healthcare heroes in these incredibly demanding and extraordinary times. All this, and I haven’t even mentioned the pub quizzes, charity shoot-outs and the Warwick does Strictly Come Dancing, all things Mixed Hockey got involved with to support the fundraising initiatives of other clubs and societies. Overall, we’ve raised £2,027.75 for our charity, Coventry Haven, and £730.50 for various other charities, including Mind, HHCP and Stonewall UK. We’ve also run training sessions aimed to raise awareness surrounding the LGBT+ community, the This Girl Can movement, and we’ve taken part in the Show Racism the Red Card campaign.  I have loved my year as the charities and welfare sec so much, and I have all of you to thank for your enthusiasm and involvement to make it so enjoyable. I hope you all stay safe and well during these extraordinary times, and I look forward to seeing you all again as soon as we can.
Hasta luego, con cariño, Alison xoxo Comments are closed.
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