Science Society raises €13,100 for Crumlin
By Aoife Brophy | Oct 19 2011
UCD’s Science Society presented a €13,100 cheque to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin on October 11th.
The money was raised during the 2010-2011 academic year through various fundraisers such as the Science Ball, Cycle to Galway and Jock Walk.Current auditor Conor Dowdall was happy with the donations received and the success of the event, “last year, based on economic downturn and everything, we still managed to raise over €10,000 which I think was pretty good”.Last year’s auditor, Justin Brayden, also stated that the society was more than happy with the money raised despite a drastic fall from previous year’s efforts – in 2010, the events raised in excess of €34,000. “I think it was very tough on a lot of students, everyone saw reductions in ticket sales and stuff like that so I’m pretty happy with the result”.Brayden continued to say that “there are a couple of other cheques, single cheques, that are for €960 but they’re not all raised through Science Society events. They’re donations we get throughout the year and whatnot”.Science Day has been running for over twenty years under the auspice of a committee. However, the Science Day committee sought societal recognition in 2010, with last year being the first session of the Science Society. For the last number of years, Crumlin has been the charity to which proceeds were donated.The society was left without an auditor for the second semester of last year due to Breyden’s work placement outside of Ireland. He was adamant that this did not have an effect on the fundraising efforts but that the overall reduction in student spending was caused by the recession.“My move to Edinburgh wasn’t planned, I was to take up a job in Dublin but I had to move to Edinburgh because of requirements from the company. Obviously we needed to re-jig the committee and all that but the committee are more than capable. I think with the year that was in it, I don’t think any society did overly well”.The society, who signed up just under 800 members during Freshers’ Week, remains optimistic about the coming year and is planning traditional events such as Science Day, the Science Ball, the annual cycle to Galway as well as various nights out throughout the year. The society’s latest event, the Pubathon, took place on October 13th. Over 250 tickets were sold for the event.