Aquinas is Shaving and Walking
Outreach was front-and-centre in early August with two events that gave students the opportunity to raise some significant funds for charity.
Wednesday evening, 5 August, saw most of the College brave a cool night on the Gleeson Lawn for the ‘World’s Greatest Shave’. This had been postponed from last semester.
Over the two hours, there was no shortage of bold volunteers willing to have their heads shaved, chests waxed, and hair dyed. Enthusiastic hosts Bailey Marzola and Gemma Pollard created a lively atmosphere among the crowd and inspired some generous sponsorship. The result? A collection of rude hairstyles and almost $3,000 raised for Leukemia research.
Two mornings later, a majority of the College was up at dawn to take part in the annual ‘Walk a Mile in my Boots’ in support of the Hutt Street Centre and homelessness in Adelaide. With the central event not held this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Aquinas students split into House groups and mapped out different mile-length routes around North Adelaide. Almost $1500 was raised.
Outreach Coordinator, Hannan Manning, was delighted with the response over the two events.
‘Supporting Outreach initiatives is an important part of who we are here at Aquinas,’ said Hannah. ‘After not being able to do as much as usual last semester, it was great to see how many got around these two worthy causes.’
Hannah said that the next group event would be the annual winter sleep-out later in the month. This was aimed at raising awareness of the plight of people who sleep rough on the streets of Adelaide and is also associated with the Hutt Street Centre.
‘This is always another well-supported event for us at Aquinas, and we look forward to the same in 2020,’ said Hannah.