Page 46 - Mansfield 2019/20

The impact of your support Community Week
and Giving Day
I am writing this the day after the completion of Mansfield’s first ever Giving Day, still on an absolute high after the wellspring of donations
large and small. Uplifting messages of support came from all over the world, inspired by the sporting and creative challenges completed by staff and students. In total more than £70,000 was raised for our priorities: Mansfield Matters; Student Support; and Access and Outreach.
Tess McCormick Development Director
Community Week began on Monday 26 October, with varied fun activities and treats for students and staff: branded brownies, origami sessions and some specially organised Online Alumni Reunions hosted by current and Emeritus Fellows and tutors.
Then at 9am on Wednesday 28 October, the 36-hour ‘Giving Day’ online crowd-funder for Mansfield began. The Principal launched the day with a klaxon; we had Professors and students running 1886 laps of the Quad all day (to match the year in which Mansfield was founded) and smashing that ambitious target by actually completing 2020 laps; our
highly creative community also produced
a wealth of cakes, poetry and music; and a herculean 12-hour rowing challenge with ergometers (‘ergs’) added to the excitement on the Quad, thanks to MCBC.
So many students, Fellows, alumni, and staff took part, and it was fantastic to see all the encouraging messages coming in on social media throughout the day.
We were all addicted to the online Giving Day platform, watching donations as they came in, cheering when it was someone
we knew, willing those challenges to be
met – 200 Giving Day donors; 50 first-time
donors; ten people giving £500 or more; and so on. One by one we reached them all.
Nearly 36 hours later, it’s 8.55pm, there are five minutes to go before the Giving Day deadline. The Quad is dark, George King, President of the Mansfield College Boat Club is rowing the final half-hour of the 12-hour erg challenge. The Principal and a (socially distanced) gathering of staff and students
– most of us sweaty in running gear after running, jogging or enthusiastically walking laps of the Quad – stare at a screen showing the live total of funds raised, stubbornly stuck at £59,915. Minutes to go. Seconds. Just as the clock ticks across 9pm, the numbers move
Muzzammil Khan (Geography 2020)
Dan Tarry (Geography, 2011) , Mansfield College Alumni Association President
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