Victoria Park was overrun with chanting, dancing, cheering frosh and their leaders on Saturday, as ArtSci and CompSci orientation committees kicked off Shinerama, the annual fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis.
The sun was shining and the music was pumping as frosh stood in lines that snaked through the crowded park. Participants received free hotdogs donated by A&P, before heading into the Kingston community to raise money.
“I couldn’t have asked for a nicer day,” said Chris Mitchell, ArtSci’06 and fundraising chair of the Arts and Science Undergraduate Society orientation committee, adding that the only downside to the day was the amount of bees in the park, and the amount of paint left in the grass after the Frosh decorated their coveralls.
“The whole yard is tri-colour,” Mitchell said.
“In my experience this has been one of the funnest events of Frosh Week,” said Erin McFadden, ArtSci ’06 and a member of the orientation committee fundraising team. “It’s a team-building experience.”
In this, the 40th anniversary year of Shinerama, the orientation committee is aiming to raise upwards of $40,000 said Mitchell.
“I am very confident that we will make that total,” Mitchell said.
The bottle drive alone raised $1,000 he said.
Shinerama raised $23,500 on Saturday, well above the roughly $16,000 that was raised last year, Mitchell said. The committee will continue to raise money by selling candy necklaces at downtown bars and will receive money from an AMS opt-outable fee and ASUS.
“We are in the top five or six of sixty campuses across Canada [for funds raised],” Mitchell said. “Since 1964 Queen’s has raised $428,700.”
This year the nation-wide goal is $1 million, he said.
Shinerama began in 1964 as a shoe-shining campaign during orientation week in universities across Canada.
This year, Queen’s Frosh raised money in the Kingston community by shining shoes, selling raffle tickets, running car washes and collecting bottles.
The day began with a presentation in Bartlett gym by the Kingston chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis foundation.
Jeff Quanz, president of the Kingston chapter and his son Eric, who has cystic fibrosis, spoke to the frosh about Shinerama and the disease itself.
Many found the presentation motivating.
“I was planning on skipping the event if it wasn’t for the presentation,” said Jason Jones, Artsci ’08.
“It was good to have someone who has C.F. talk,” said Bryan Logan, CompSci ’08.
Shinerama serves as an introduction to Cystic Fibrosis for some.
“I don’t know anyone with C.F.,” said Anna Ferraro, ArtSci ’05 and an orientation committee member. “I didn’t understand how important it was to get involved … now I can see how much of a difference it can make.”
Mitchell became involved in the fundraising committee because of his experience with Shinerama as a Gael.
“I had the best time ever when I was a gael,” he said. “In high school I never did anything like this, never volunteered for anything.
“I fell in love with Shinerama.”
Reasons for becoming involved are more personal for McFadden, who had a close friend with Cystic Fibrosis in high school.
“I knew about C.F. and kind of always thought about it as a thing for kids,” she said, in between blowing up balloons in Victoria park Saturday morning. “It brought it closer to my own age-group.”
Lara Heuff, co-chair of the Cystic Fibrosis Committee at Queen’s—which carries on fund-raising for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation year-round—sat behind a table in the park with a sheet and pen at the ready.
“Usually once people get back from raising money they have a lot of fun and want to help,” she said.
The response was positive on the street, said Gael Jeff Brown, Artsci ’07, whose group was weaving amongst cars stopped at a red light on Princess St.
“A lot of people are giving very generously,” he said. “We just sort of run to the cars and guilt them into giving us money.”
Outside McDonald’s on Princess St., pedestrians were forced to walk through a gauntlet of gaels and their frosh appealing for spare change, while across the street another group chanted, “Donate now! Donate now!”
In the Business Depot parking lot a group of frosh formed a pyramid outside the entrance in a bid to entice people to donate.
“[The activities are] pretty much exactly what we do every year,” Mitchell said. “Sponsors also give us money for putting banners in the park and ads in the Gael handbook.”
The committee raised $4,000 from November to April by selling candy necklaces at downtown bars and $2,000 from auctioning off the Orientation Committee to incoming Gaels last Spring.
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