Students show they care with charity’s favourite bear
Posted: 24 November 2021
There has been plenty of fun and fundraising at West Nottinghamshire College as staff and students have done their bit for BBC’s Children In Need.
Pudsey Bear was run off his paws joining in with many fun encounters and activities across all four college campuses. At the college’s Engineering Innovation Centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield he sat in one of the vehicles which students work on as part of their qualification.
Meanwhile at the construction centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield he visited the painting and decorating workshop as well as students in the carpentry and joinery team while posing for photographs.
He took the college bus to the Mansfield and Ashfield Sixth Form College in Mansfield’s town centre where he collected money in the collection tin from the A-Level students.
Throughout his adventures Pudsey stopped to let students take a selfie for the Instagram competition which gave them the chance to win one of three £10 Amazon voucher by uploading their photograph with the hashtag #WestNottsLife.
Members of the student enrichment and engagement team accompanied Pudsey Bear outside the Derby Road campus where he entertained students as they caught their buses home, seeing him featuring in more selfie pictures while dancing and shaking his collection tin for those last-minute donations.
Students from the childcare curriculum supported the week’s Children In Need fun and fundraising with a cake bake sale, prize raffle, guess the number of sweets in a jar game and face painting for a donation. These activities raised over £332. The students from all classes ranging from Level 1 to Level 3 also set up a Go Fund Me and Just Giving page to keep the donations rolling in, boosting this figure to over £396.
The grand total of funds raised across the college amounted to an impressive £656.82 through the childcare team’s initiatives and Pudsey Bear’s tin collections and Just Giving page.
Principal and chief executive Andrew Cropley said: “It was very heartening to see so many staff and students getting involved in a whole range of charitable activities.
“There was certainly a lot of enthusiasm across the campuses in putting together some creative endeavours for this – one of the main highlights in the college’s fundraising calendar.”