Baking and Gunking for a Good Cause

Our fundraising for the World Challenge trip to Nepal initially began as a list of ideas written on a scrap piece of paper; I would have never thought that it would have led to a whole school effort! It was incredible to see our individual events become so popular as more and more students began to get involved. In the end, all of the people who contributed towards this event felt a sense of pride and relief – it was an incredible effort.

We had arranged three separate events running at the same time to encourage students to donate, the events ran between the 19 – 30 April: Bake Sales, music at break times and the “gunk the teacher”. In addition to this, we had two Mufti Days where students wore the national colours of the Nepalese flag. Our previous experience with the Bake Sales and music was positive, and we decided to spice things up this time by selling beloved pizza! The “gunk the teacher”, a new event in St Christopher’s, was a grand success in the end. Eighteen teachers were covered in brightly coloured gunk, much to the delight of the audience!

Our cause became even more important at the occurrence of the tragic earthquake on 25 April, and our priorities were now more concrete than ever; we had to raise as much money as possible. The support we garnered was overwhelming and immensely gratifying, with additional teachers signing up to be gunked and students pledging large sums of money for specific teachers. The official gunking day was on the 30 April, where the person who donated the largest amount of money to a specific teacher had the honour of pouring the gunk on that teacher. It was a great end to our fundraising campaign for Nepal, and in total for the whole campaign, we managed to raise more than BD4000! This money will be divided between the Hillside Academy, the school that we were due to build in Nepal and where many students have lost their lives, and Oxfam. ~ Narmada Venkateswaran 6RLE