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The University of York Netball Club has ended the year in charitable style, taking part in and running a couple of events to raise over £550 for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the RAG core charities.
Following on from the end of competitive matches for the year, the netballers' sporting prowess showed itself again as many members of the club took part in the annual Santa Dash for the BHF. The run, which was hosted by the BHF in conjunction with BBC Radio York, saw an estimated 200 keen fundraisers don Santa outfits and run a mile along the river.
Although lacking in crowd support, possibly due to a lack of publicity in the city on the day, the atmosphere was decidedly Christmassy and all participants seemed to thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to dress up for charity. For the netballers, running in such cumbersome costumes was no challenge as was proved as six of the girls were the first Mrs Christmases to return home. And perhaps this outstanding display can be attributed to their love of navigating the streets of York in fancy dress on a Wednesday night!
As noted by one of the Netball Club’s Events and Fundraising Reps, Jenni Williams, “It was a morning of charity and hilarity and well worth giving up our time for”. Williams and her co-rep Grace Marsdon were also responsible for organising the club's annual Christmas fundraiser, Kits and Tinsel, which took place on Sunday evening at Varsity. The yearly event was bigger and better than ever before; with over 100 tickets sold, the bottom floor of Varsity was teeming with end of term Christmas spirit.
The space was flamboyantly decorated with tinsel and snowflakes, giving it a great festive feel. And with home-made mince pies and mulled wine on arrival, the event was always going to get off to a flying start. With the wine flowing raffle tickets began selling at a terrific rate. But this was of no surprise with such a vast number of great prizes: members of the netball club had blagged everything from 20 free cocktails at Pitcher and Piano and a £60 meal at Strada to several bottles of wine and some good old fudge factory goodies. The night continued in festive spirit as the girls had got their hands on 80 gallery queue jumps, the perfect end to a very successful evening.
The events and fundraising reps and indeed all the rest of the club should be congratulated for such a fantastic event and for raising over £500 for the RAG core charities: Island N1, St Leonard’s Hospice, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Water Aid and Invisible Children. On behalf of the club, Jenni Williams thanked every one who supported and participated in the events and added that she was looking forward to the annual charity netball tournament in the summer and the possibility of other events in the spring. Judging by the successes of Kits and Tinsel, a netball charity event will be something not to miss in 2010.
Great stuff from the Netball girls, hopefully some other sports clubs and societies can follow in their footsteps and raise some RAG cash next term!
Also, there are six, not five, core charities - YUSU Volunteering being the sixth ommitted from the article.
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