Shine Day 2016 a Complete Success

The following post was written by Brayden Dueck and Aly Bowles, co-chairs of the CSA’s Shinerama Committee.

Shinerama is Canada’s largest post-secondary fundraiser raising over $1 million annually in support of Cystic Fibrosis Canada. When Shinerama started in 1964, the average life expectancy for a child diagnosed with cystic fibrosis was under 5 years. Today, the average life expectancy is over 50 years, helped in large part by the efforts of students participating in Shinerama over the years.

Shine Day 2016 marked the 31st year that the University of Manitoba campus has participated in the Shinerama campaign. This year, we were pleased to continue on the tradition started many years before us and raise just under $10k on Shine Day alone.

This year was another one for the books, and many events were hosted during the summer to fundraise. We kicked the year off participating in the Osborne Canada Day street festival. Three days were spent at a booth offering face painting and balloon animals. We are all now pros at both of these.

SHINE volunteers at the Osborne Canada Day Street FestivalShinerama volunteered at the largest event of the summer, Winnipeg’s own MTS Super Spike. This involved us serving as the grounds cleanup crew collecting beer cans which could all be returned and the 10¢ return fee was donated to Shinerama. Volunteers were hard at work and donated countless hours over the weekend. In total from this event we raised over $2k which yes, is as many cans as it sounds.

SHINE volunteers at MTS Super SpikeSeptember 16th saw the culmination of the hard work and dedication of our committee members. The day started off bright and early at 5:30am with volunteers from JDC Team Toba picking up rental vans and being our wonderful drivers for the day. The weather was bleak but the rain managed to hold off for most of the day. Many may have seen us located out in the quad huddling together to keep warm. Eventually the weather turned and our volunteers got busy doing what they do best, shining shoes and raising money. We saw volunteers from every faculty on campus, over 200 people in total, go throughout the city as well as the Bannatyne and Fort Garry campus’ collecting donations and shining shoes. The event was a huge success.

Ace Burpee from 103.1 Virgin Radio donating to Shinerama on Shine DayA special shoutout goes to Special T Shirt company for providing all of the bright orange shirts for volunteers, to Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, University of Manitoba Students Union, Commerce Students Association, MTS Super Spike and many many more. And a huge thanks to all of our volunteers that donated their time, sweat, tears. Without our volunteers, events like these are not possible.

We have a few more opportunities to contribute before the year is over. Shinerama will be hosting a dodgeball tournament and a bud spud night. As well, donations are always accepted on our website shineumanitoba.ca. Here’s to an even better 2017!