For the last 4 years we’ve dedicated the first week in March to raising money and awareness for our charity partners YoungMinds and Jigsaw, who do incredible work to support the mental health of young people. From escape rooms and football matches to breakfast in bed, our staff and students put a shift in to get those funds raised and bust outdated taboos around mental health.

This year, as we predicted, was our best year yet, raising over £ 4,000, which is more than double last year's total! And we are still waiting on a few more donations to come in.

Here’s some highlights from the week: Charity Football Match: Chester (Abbeygate) v. Liverpool (Calico & The Lantern)
Abbeygate (Chester), Calico & The Lantern (Liverpool) rounded up their top football players and arranged a match in aid of YoungMinds, with all participants donating to take part.

I quote Abbeygate’s accommodation manager, ‘Chester smashed Liverpool 6:2!’
 

Bridge Street Exchange: 1920’s Murder Mystery Escape Rooms     

Over in Cardiff, Bridge Street Exchange hosted a 1920’s Murder Mystery Escape Room, and students got into teams to find out ‘Who done it?’ Each team donated to take part and figure out who committed the crime whilst eating pizza provided by our 1920’s themed staff.
 

Potterrow: Krispy Kreme Doughnut Sale

Our Potterrow staff over in Edinburgh served out Krispy Kreme doughnuts to hungry students in return for donations.

  The Shield: Pool Competition
  Newcastle made great use of their pool table and held a pool competition between their residents for the first round, and against The Shield’s legendary security guard in the finale. The students took him down.

  Spring Mews: Bake Sale
   In London, Spring Mews organised a very posh looking spread of all things sugary and delicious in return for donations to YoungMinds. Safe to say they went down a TREAT.

  Central Services

Our Central Services staff whipped up their best bakes for our Bake sale, and then worked off those extra calories on Spin Bikes and Treadmills to clock up those kilometres for our 10k Challenge!

We ended our week with our Silent Auction, where all our lots were snapped up by our generous bidders!

So, all in all, an incredibly successful week! But raising money doesn’t stop there. We continue to organise fundraising activities throughout the year to support the amazing work that YoungMinds and Jigsaw do, so keep an eye out.

Didn’t get a chance to donate last week? Don’t worry, you can still head over to our charity pages and make a donation to either our UK charity partner YoungMinds via our JustGiving page or our Irish charity partner Jigsaw via our EveryDayHero page.

To all those who organised, baked, walked, ran, cycled, and donated for our fantastic causes, thank you!

Watch out Charity Week 2021, you’ve got a lot to live up to!