"It's getting HOT in here" (Nelly: 2002)
- Details
- Category: The President's Blog - Mairead
- Published on Thursday, 12 January 2012 11:29
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas break and no one is suffering from the January Blues! A special mention to all those doing their FYPs, I hope they are going alright for you. Just to give you all an update regarding Helping Others Together Week (HOT) Week, formally known as RAG Week which will run from Feb 6th-9th incl. (Week 3)
Last year was the first year of the name change. The reason was simple. We, like many SU’s nationally, had to rebrand the week in order for it to run. This is a very small price to pay in my opinion and it was you, the students who decided on the new name.
The aim of the week is to raise awareness and much needed funds for worthy charities through the medium of fun - an ingenious plan in my opinion. Last year we donated €1000 each to the new branch of Pieta House which opened in Limerick and the ISPCC. There is no reason why we cannot double or triple that if all of us work together. You can contribute by going to the events organised and you can also become a “HOT Week FUNdraiser” to raise money for a charity of your choice. Information on becoming one will be posted soon on our website.
Anyway, the entire week has proved quite the challenge to organise. As opposed to the usual cloak and dagger style organising, we gave you a say in the acts. That does not mean we can deliver but just to get an idea of whom or what people would like to see. Even at that, a couple of hundred of you replied which is far from representative of the overall college population. That aside, we appreciate all of your suggestions and we tried our very best. The amount of acts that were just unavailable was surprisingly high. That plus the lack of Trinity Rooms (the venue traditionally used for the big act) has made things difficult in terms of covering costs with other venues.
Despite these hiccups, I am pretty happy with the line-up. We have a little more money than we had in the kitty last year which gives us an opportunity to improve the quality of the Lounge events for example and include a few extras that we would not have had last year. Hurray!
Like everything, you will get out of the week what you put in. So give is socks!
My advice would be:
- Buy the HOT Pack - so you will save money.
- Go to everything - it only happens once a year and you might regret it if you don’t.
- Help us raise money for charity – it is our biggest opportunity as a group to do this.
- HAVE FUN! It is the one week of the year that everyone comes together to have a laugh so make sure your part of it!
Like always, if you have any questions, queries or comments in relation to this or anything else, you know where to find me.
Until next time,
Mairéad