On Monday 6 March, Charterhouse launched its first ever House Charities Week, as part of the spirit of philanthropy which has been so central to our School since its foundation.
At Charterhouse, we believe in helping others and, in that spirit, the School Charity Committee decided to have a House Charities Week. During the week, pupils in each House raise as much money as they can for their chosen charity through a variety of activities.
Ben Nicholls, Director of Social Responsibility, adds: "House Charities Week has provided a fantastic focal point for the energies of our pupils in raising funds for brilliant causes. Indeed, it has proved so popular – and the pupils planned so many activities – that we decided to keep fundraising open to the end of term. The Houses’ twelve pages are all live at Pledgit – please do support causes as you can and wish. House Charities Week has shown that the values of citizenship and service, so long a core part of the Charterhouse ethos, are alive and well today, with over £17,000 so far raised for a range of remarkable causes."
Pupil, Dylan Maycock (g) reports on a highly successful initiative:
"Firstly, the Houses had to choose which charities to represent, doing this through recommendations and House votes within their own House Charities Committees. There were a wide range of charities chosen – doing all sorts of remarkable things, from finding cures for diseases, sponsoring a marathon runner, cleaning the streets in India, and a variety of other amazing ideas in response to life changing situations. After the votes were counted, a Pledgit page was created by each House representative in order to promote their charity and to allow external donations to be made.
Once each House decided on the charity and had established their Pledgit page, activities had to be planned for the whole house, in order to raise money. There were a number of activities such as swimming for twelve hours non-stop (with a team of fifty swimmers from Daviesites raising over £3,500 so far), creating hoodies, selling sweets and baked goods, a football tournament, and even waxing a pupil’s legs! All were a great success and got everyone in each House involved to help raise awareness about their chosen charity.
In my own House, Girdlestonites (Duckites), we had a vote on which charity we would be supporting. In the end, we decided to fundraise for Action Medical Research (AMR), a charity financing research to help prevent and cure diseases in mothers and their children. To raise money, we had a charity football tournament where people with all sorts of football skills (such as never played before to 1stXI) would be able to play as long as they had donated any amount of money. We had 6 teams, consisting of 7-8 players on each team and me as the referee. This allowed around 50 people (out of 70 in the House) to raise money for a great cause whilst having a laugh. Throughout the tournament, we designed and personalised leavers hoodies from Germany, for my year (Second Year Specialists) with over £100 being raised from this alone. Then we sold Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Hot Dogs with Chips to the whole house. This allowed everyone to donate and enjoy a ‘treat’ at the same time, resulting in us raising just over £300 from these two activities. As well as us auctioning two teddy bears, which were given to us by AMR. We also a used number of collection tins, found around the house and by going around the house with them.
Within a few days of our Pledgit page being live, we had already raised around £,1000 from donations and after completing some of our activities Duckites had raised around £1,600. There are still the collection tins to count and the last of the tournament to finish, so hopefully we have raised just under £2,000 for a great cause."