Students Raise Money For Seriously Ill Young Adults
When second year events students Emma Swallow, Georgina Wilks and Paula Orlwoska were tasked with arranging an event to raise awareness and money for a local charity, they joined forces with the Willow Foundation to organise a Willow Wardrobe Pop-Up Shop.
The Willow Foundation and its Willow Wardrobe
The Willow Foundation is the only UK charity that provides special days for seriously ill 16 to 40 year olds. At times of real uncertainty a Special Day provides the inspiration to make every moment count and a positive focus away from diagnosis and treatment. For some people it may be the final chance to create lasting memories, while for many others it can mark the end of their illness, boost confidence and provide motivation to move forward with their lives.
As a new fundraising initiative which helps the Willow Foundation’s vital work, Willow Wardrobe was originally the concept of stylist, Sarah Wilson, who organised the very first event in 2011. Her Pop Up Shop in Walton-on-Thames capitalised on the popularity of recycling vintage and pre-loved clothes in the name of charity. Her Pop Up Shop was open for a week, was visited by more than 500 customers and raised £15,000.
The event
To start the ball rolling for their event, Emma, Georgina and Paula began researching charities when they came across the Willow Foundation. Emma explained: “It really captured our attention – we liked that it was a family run charity and believe that it is a fantastic idea for such a great and important cause. The Willow Foundation really does make a difference to so many families and provides them with lasting memories, so we wanted to get involved in any way we could.”
Emma continued: “To make sure we had clothes to sell for the event, we wrote to companies but found that many already supported other charities. However, ASOS and Radley were able to help and we also received donated clothes from the Willow Foundation and friends and family. We even donated some of our own clothes!”
After weeks of organising and liaising with the Willow Foundation, the girls’ Willow Wardrobe event took place on Wednesday 27 March from 12.00-16.00 and Thursday 28 March from 11.00-14.00 in the Forum Foyer. As well as selling donated clothes for a discounted price, Emma explained: “We also had a number of brand new handbags donated by ASOS and Radley donated a new handbag worth £200! This was really great as it meant we had old and new stock.”
The event was a great success and overall £148 was raised for the Willow Foundation, which will help towards providing a Special Day for an individual and their family.
Support and advice
Being tasked to organise an event as part of their degree really enabled the students to gain practical learning. Emma said: “Rather than sitting in a lecture being told how to organise an event, we actually got to do it, which was great. We were also pretty much left to our own devices, so it was a really independent experience – we could really get involved and be hands-on and also understand fully all of the aspects to consider when organising such an event.”
Emma added: “We did, however, gain some help from our tutor, who taught us everything to consider in the planning of an event, such as budgets and insurance, which was really useful.”
As advice to anyone organising a charity event, Emma explained: “I would recommend staying in touch with your chosen charity. We met with ours almost every week to discuss our progress and we also went to an event organised by the Willow Foundation and met the founders of the Willow Wardrobe. We feel it really made us want to achieve more by developing a connection with the charity.”
Emma continued: “I also recommend being extremely organised! Between the three of us we had our event very well prepared, but looking back we would of changed the dates that we held our event on as it worked out as the week of assignment deadlines and the beginning of the Easter holidays, therefore, there weren't as many people at the University as there usually is!”
Find out more
To find out more about more about the Willow Foundation, please visit http://www.willowfoundation.org.uk/Home
To find out more about the Willow Wardrobe, please visit http://www.willowwardrobe.org.uk/willow-wardrobe
To find out more about studying Event Management at the University of Hertfordshire, please visit http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/subjects/event_management/undergraduate.cfm
Contact
Rebecca McAleese, Media and PR office
T: 01707 286 476