Last year, Dates-n-Mates Aberdeen established a link with Robert Gordon University Event Management students for their final year “Main Event” project.
On February 24th, 2018 – a fantastic fundraising event was held for us by the students at the end of their project which raised £1933 for Dates-n-Mates Aberdeen.
Every year the fourth year Event Management students at RGU work with a variety of local charities to showcase the skills they have learned on the course by organising a new event for their charity partner. In small groups the students must design their event concept and manage all aspects of the event planning and delivery process – with events aimed to raise funds and awareness for their charity.
This Main Event student project began at RGU five years ago with our very own Marketing & Events Coordinator, Louise, participating as a student herself in 2014/2015. Therefore, she was in a good position to be the mentor for the Dates-n-Mate’s student group over the last few months.
The students linked with Dates-n-Mates well by attending one of our events and coming to the office to meet with some members. They interviewed 2 members and our Director, Sarah, creating promotional videos of them talking about what dates-n-mates means to them. These video clips can be found on both the dates-n-mates Aberdeen and ‘Tastes O the Shire’ Facebook pages.
They raised awareness for us by participating in a range of pre-event fundraising in the local community including doughnut sales at the University, bag packs in local supermarkets and a car boot sale, where they were able to help spread the message of what we do. They also raised awareness at the event with information on what we do made available for all attendees.
The event itself was a food tasting evening at Hazlehead Park Café with live musicians and an opportunity to win some great prizes. Staff Louise & Peter attended with 12 members/support alongside members of the public mostly friends, family and fellow students of the group organising the event. Tastes O’ the shire consisted of a 3-course tasting menu:
- The Starter where people were encouraged to wear blindfolds to taste 3 of the items and try to be the first to guess what it was to win a prize. A few of our members took part in this and enjoyed it… even if they did get a shock when one of the items was spicy! One of our members sister won a prize voucher for guessing first with this one!
- Then the main course with a variety of taster items to enjoy from mini steak pie to cod & cheese bites.
- Followed by a trio of desserts including sticky toffee pudding!
The event also featured 3 local musicians performing which dates-n-mates have already booked again for a future event (our Summer party) as they were very talented. The evening was hosted by Kenny Luke who led games such as heads or tails where people could win prizes donated by local business’s. Overall the event was a success with everyone enjoying the evening.
The students were able to raise over £1900 for Dates-n-Mates Aberdeen through this project/event. This is a fantastic amount that we very much appreciate and will go towards providing more great experiences and opportunities for our members. Therefore, we would like to say a very big THANK YOU and well done to the student group – Anna, Erin, Maja and Emma! We wish you all the best of luck in your future careers now that you are finishing your degree. Thank you also to Robert Gordon University especially lecturers Rachael Ironside and Craig Leith for allowing dates-n-mates to be one of the charities chosen for the students. The overall Main Event project worked with 9 charities this year and raised over £14,000 in total which is an amazing amount for local charities!
The student group said the following: “Organising the event on behalf of this inspirational charity is something the group will never forget! We all really enjoyed working with the staff at dates-n-mates Aberdeen and meeting the wonderful members throughout the project. Louise has been a fantastic help in helping us to plan and make Tastes O’ the Shire a successful event!”
It is great to have local support and funds/awareness for dates-n-mates raised by others… we would encourage more of this in the future. If anyone would like to discuss how they may be able to link with us, please do get in touch at dnmaberdeen@c-change.org.uk.
