Shine Day total hits $86,000
Six-figures raised in annual O-Week Shine Day fundraiser
Despite a severe thunderstorm throughout the Waterloo Region the day before, Wilfrid Laurier University’s Shine Day continued as planned to finish off Orientation Week on Saturday.
Shannon Hall, Shinerama coordinator on the Waterloo campus, believed everything went well despite the storm the day before.
“We had all of our stuff prepped beforehand, so the storm didn’t really affect us that much,” she said.
The final total donation for Shinerama has yet to be confirmed, but according to the Laurier Shinerama Facebook page, the money raised on Shine Day alone was approximately $86,582.65, which puts their total at around $127,000 this year.
The amount raised on Shine Day is approximately $4,771 less than last year’s total for the event.
Last year’s grand total was $142,923, as recorded in mid-March.
Laurier finished first for university fundraising, donating just over $3,000 more than McMaster University.
This year, Shine Day ran with three waves until approximately 4:30 p.m., with a positive reaction from students. According to Hall, it was much easier to get students out for Shine Day, unlike the past two years where it rained on the event day.
“It was spitting a little bit in the morning, but I think we still got a lot of people out because most of the people check the weather and realized it was going to get better as the day went on, so we still had a really great turnout for it,” she said.
Shinerama is considered to be Canada’s largest fundraising event for Cystic Fibrosis awareness.
The campaign has raised $21.5 million since its beginning in 1961.
Laurier Shinerama starts raising money at the beginning of the summer, through their annual softball tournament, various barbecues, awareness events and a silent auction.
“I think we had a really great turnout to our awareness events during the week too, so that was really great to see and that’s part of what we do is raise awareness and educate people on [Cystic Fibrosis],” said Hall.
Hall also said there will be more Shinerama awareness campaigns throughout the year that the team is currently working on developing.
She also believes the students made the event a more successful one.
“Overall, I think it was really successful because we raised a lot of awareness for it and we also raised a lot of money.”
