Charity Week

This past week was Charity Week throughout the UK. I'm not very informed on the full details for it, but my understanding is that local schools encourage their students to organise fundraisers for local charities, and have a lot of money-raising activities all week... a lot of it is about awareness of community needs.

Here at the Uni, there were a lot of fun activites with proceeds to go to different charities. For some examples, there was a "survivor sleepout" on Tuesday night to be aware of homelessness, a speed-dating event at a restaurant/club Thursday night to benefit "street kids" (not sure what street kids are), and a Party for Pudsey, which is a yellow bear used as the symbol for Friday, the day for Children in Need. Friday is the biggest day of Charities Week, where there are collection buckets everywhere: in the dining halls, in corner stores, on sidewalks like Salvation Army bell-ringers, you name it, everywhere... all for the Children in Need Fund, which I think is for kids who are in desperate need of treatment for some kind of medical problem, be it physical, psychological, behavoural, emotional. I am told that there is a broadcast on Friday night of a comedy/variety show type for the week, but am not entirely sure how it ties in.. possibly with phone-a-thon style donations? Not sure.

Pudsey, and some info from BBC

I was a little confused when I walked into the dining hall yesterday morning and all the staff were wearing bright wigs and sequined hats, with large buckets everywhere, and lots of yellow teddy bears. My British friends explained a little through breakfast, but were surprised I had to ask---they'd forgotten it wasn't something I would have ordinarily heard about. They also explaine Pudsey. Why is he called Pudsey, I don't know. Pudgy?

Apparently yesterday, the Children in Need Fund netted 19 million quid, which is actually a record. That's a lot of money, a little under $40 million. In one day!