Latest posts (RSS 2.0)Queen’s students are inundated with more fundraisers than you can shake a fist at. They are almost always for worthy causes. But sometimes, student-run charities lose sight of the big picture.
The Project Red Charity Fashion Show is an annual event that was founded last year at Queen’s. One of its major fundraisers, according to my Facebook invitation today, is Drunk Week. This is a pub crawl for which Project Red will sell wristbands that give free admission to bars and deals on drinks for seven straight days during the first week of classes in January.
That week has been informally known as Drunk Week for awhile, but Project Red has slapped it on a big red poster and made it their own.
One of Project Red’s two goals, according to its page on the AMS website, is to “raise awareness for heart disease and promote a healthy lifestyle among Queen’s students.”
Don’t get me wrong: I love a pub crawl. But this particular fundraising effort seems rather antithetical to Project Red’s mission of promoting healthy living among Queen’s students.
Numerous studies have shown heavy drinking has a toxic effect on the heart. It can lead to high blood pressure, congestive heart failure, stroke and many other problems.
I’m sure Project Red’s organizers know this. They might just be blinded by the potential financial upside of a pub crawl for university students.
Running a pub crawl doesn’t directly promote binge drinking, but buying one of those bracelets only makes financial sense if you plan to consume multiple drinks at several bars over the course of the week.
As a student with limited funds to contribute to a myriad of causes, it’s unfortunate when a charity with a great cause violates its own mandate.
Project Red is a worthy event. Many of my friends have been involved with it and I attended the show last year. But if they want to be taken seriously as a charity, their fundraisers should at least attempt to match their message.
