Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Shinerama Donation Website is LIVE!

We are very excited to announce that the Shinerama donation website is up and running and ready for some fundraising action!

Follow these easy steps to register today:

  1. Go to http://www.shinerama.ca/ 
  2. Click on the big orange “DONATE SHINERAMA” button on the top right of the page or the “Register Now!” link in the body of the page and this will take you to the donation website. (We have to send all registrants/donors through our CCFF website first because of Foundation protocol)
  3. Click on the “Register Now” button located on the top left side of the donation website
  4. Find your school or register as an Alumni or Virtual School (for any school without an official Shinerama campaign)
  5. Register as an Individual, Team Captain or Team Member (you can join a team at any time!) 
  6. Complete all the survey information and you are REGISTERED!!
We’ve added/improved some great features this year which include:
  • An “Alumni” and “Virtual School” option which allows participants to register even if they are not currently enrolled in one of the Shinerama schools
  • Personalize your pages by adding your favourite photos (maximum of 3) and videos (maximum of 3). We’ve included default images for now, which can be changed at will
  • Addthis application (located on the left side of personal pages) which allows registrants to share their personal page on Facebook, Twitter, Delicious & tons of other social media mediums!
  • A link to the Shinerama (@Shinerama) twitter on all pages
  • A link to the Shinerama Blog on the main page
Ways to Promote the Shinerama Website (other than social media):
  • Ask the Registrar’s office to send an email to first years or in a summer package
  • Link it from your school’s website
  • Inter-department web site/message system
  • Have your Orientation-week team put it on all of their promotional pieces
Once you’ve logged in, all the information you need on fundraising and creating teams is located by clicking on the “Fundraising” or “Team” tabs at the top of the page.

GOOD LUCK ON ALL YOUR FUNDRAISING - WE CAN’T WAIT TO REACH THE
$1 MILLION GOAL THIS YEAR!!!

The $1 million goal is only possible if you TELL EVERYONE about your fundraising goals and this site. Remember to share all summer long with the new frosh this summer, school clubs, departments, sport teams and administration. Make it fun – create fun challenges for friendly competition!!
Please note - if you have a few moments, we'd love to hear your feedback on the website!

Contact Alexis at 1-800-378-2233 x241 or by email

Monday, July 26, 2010

University College (U of T) & Ryerson Engineering Host 1st Club Night Collaboration!

Hey Shine Nation!

On July 9th, University College at the University of Toronto and Ryerson Engineering hosted our first joint event of the summer! A packed club night in heart of downtown Toronto’s entertainment district! It was an extremely successful night, with partiers from both schools mixing and having an amazing time all in the name of a great cause.

Having raised $1,000, the Shinerama organizers from both schools are immensely proud of our first collaboration, and are looking forward to bringing together Toronto schools for even more successful events in the future!

Special thanks to London Tap House for hosting our event, and the assistance of their staff during the evening. Also, HUGE thanks to all of the University of Toronto and Ryerson students who came out to support this event.

Stay tuned for more Toronto Shining!
Regards,

University College (U of T) and Ryerson Shinerama Teams

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

September 7th Declared Official Shine Day in Prince Edward Island!

Hello Shiner Nation!

UPEI is very proud to announce that September 7th, 2010 will be declared Shinerama Day by Prince Edward Island’s premier, the honourable Robert Ghiz. He will be attending our kick-off to sign the proclamation and speak to our Shiners before they head out (we’ll also be giving him a Shinerama t-shirt, but don’t tell! It’s a surprise).

The proclamation is an excellent opportunity for UPEI to promote our Shinerama campaign. It is a way to demonstrate solidarity between the university and the community as we work together to fight cystic fibrosis. It shows that our local politicians support Shinerama and the volunteer work of our Shiners. And with politicians around, there is always a great chance for a photo op to accompany those press releases! Getting might seem like a daunting task, but it is really quite simple. All it takes is the proper lines of communication and a little persistence. For our proclamation, we sent a letter to the premier’s office which included background information on Shinerama and UPEI’s involvement. We asked for the declaration and included an invitation for him to attend our kick-off. About a week later we sent a follow up email to see if he had received the letter yet, and included the main points of the letter in case he hadn’t. Within a couple of weeks we received an email from Premier Robert Ghiz’s personal secretary, telling us that the premier would be happy to declare Shinerama Day on PEI and attend our kick-off. Success!

Join the UPEI Shinerama Facebook group and follow @UPEIShinerama on Twitter to get all the updates on our 2010 Shinerama Campaign! We will be sure to let you all know our kick-off with Premier Robert Ghiz goes!

Bethany Mayne
2010 Shinerama Coordinator, University of Prince Edward Island


Monday, July 19, 2010

Shinerama Highlights

1961 Student leaders at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Sir Wilfrid Laurier University) looked for a way to have fun and help others during Orientation Week. A student suggests shining shoes in exchange for donations. Shinerama is born and raises $1,300 for a local school for the mentally challenged.

1964 Parents of children with cystic fibrosis in Waterloo (Ontario) tell the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) about Shinerama's success. They challenge the Foundation to make Shinerama a CF fundraiser at other schools. Eight universities and colleges rise to the challenge and raise more than $9,000.

1971 Canadian celebrities hear about Shinerama! Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has his shoes shined. Superstar Bobby Orr's ice skates gleam!

1979 The 'International Year of the Child' holds special meaning for Shinerama students. They redouble their efforts to help thousands of Canadian children with cystic fibrosis.

1986 Mila Mulroney, the Foundation’s Honourary Director, receives the first, official 'shine' of the 1986 Shinerama campaign at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo (Ontario).

1988 Shinerama celebrates its 25th as a national CCFF fundraiser! Broadcaster Knowlton Nash lends his support to the campaign and recognizes the hard work of student volunteers since 1964.

1993 Shinerama students from the University of Western Ontario in London (Ontario) raise an unprecedented $117,000 for CF research! Shinerama raises $675,000 – its best campaign ever!

1994 TV station, MuchMusic, agrees to plug Shinerama and the cystic fibrosis cause during September.

1997 The first-ever Shiner draw takes place to thank students for participating in Shinerama. First prize is a flight for two to Europe donated by Royal Airlines! Sponsors Pizza Pizza and Kiwi Canada donate other great prizes.

1998 Rocket Richard gets his shoes shined at Nipissing University (Ontario). Singer Chantal Kreviazuk draws the winning Shinerific Draw ticket at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton).

1999 Shinerama turns 35

2002 Shinerama breaks all fundraising records – raising more than $840,000. Zellers becomes an official supplier donating gift certificates to schools for car wash supplies. Media sponsor MuchMusic sends VJ Amanda Walsh to Ottawa Shinerama campaigns.

2003 Shinerama welcomes a record number of students and schools – raising almost $952,000. It breaks the record for the largest object shined – a Canadian warship. The honour for the highest amount raised by a single school goes to Wilfrid Laurier University – $177,000.

2004 Shinerama turns 40. It grabs national media attention – with over 5.6 million impressions in newspapers Canada-wide.

2005 After a hiatus of several years, Shinerama returns to Quebec with campaigns at McGill University and Bishop’s University. They help the campaign gross more than $920,640, its second highest total ever.

2006 Another record breaking year – $965,371

2007 Shinerama celebrates with a record-breaking year with more than $985,000 raised at 65 schools across Canada, an all time high on both counts! Also marked the first ever blue and orange RV on an across Canada summer tour to promote Shinerama and CF awareness. The students from the University of Western Ontario (aka Epic Pull) raised more than $50,000!

2008 Students from Canadore College and Nipissing University create the largest Shinerama banner, which hung under the local overpass for the month of September in North Bay. Several new schools joined Shinerama for the first time helping the 2008 campaign raise $953,000 for cystic fibrosis research and care.

2009 Shinerama turns 45!

Check out the Shinerama website for more Shinerama info!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

UNB - Fredericton Canada Day Fundraiser Success!

Every year we kick off our campaign with a Canada Day fundraiser during the city’s Canada Day celebrations in the downtown area. We set up a vendor’s tent where we sell cotton candy, popcorn, pop, water, and pass out Shinerama helium balloons to kids. We also get our Student Union’s mascot (SU the Fox) to walk around at various points during the day passing out Shinerama stickers and tattoos to kids. They love it!

We started this event four years ago with just a little table where we didn’t raise that much money. Every year since, we’ve been able to buy pieces of equipment that help us grow in our professionalism, which makes parents more apt to buy from us. We have now acquired a really nice table and set of chairs, a 10’x10’ canopy to shelter us from sun and rain and our own Shinerama banner to hang up!

We’ve also been very lucky to find someone in the city to lend us their own popcorn and cotton candy machines, as well as all of the popcorn salt, oil and sugar flavouring. As well, all of the pop and water we sell is donated from our Student Union’s Pepsi Promotions Fund. It is in our school’s exclusive Pepsi contract that they donate $16,000 to be used as they see fit. This year they donated $200 to our Shinerama campaign, which we used to buy 18 cases of pop and 18 cases of water. We sold the pop and water for a $1 apiece, leaving us only to buy sugar and popcorn kernels! The reason that we’ve had such success with this fundraiser is because profit margins are ridiculous! A 2Kg bag of sugar costs $2.50, which makes approximately 50 bags of cotton candy (medium size freezer bags that are not zip-locked), which is then sold for $2 apiece!

Our event was not without its hiccups of course! We spent the first hour without HYDRO! Thankfully, five people from our team met the previous night and made enough cotton candy to fill five Rubbermaid totes, which we were able to sell in the hour. This year, we were also able to make an agreement with the city to be the only cotton candy vendor at the event.

In the eight hours that we were open (11am-7pm) we had a seven hour line up that did not stop and a 30 minute wait for our cotton candy which lasted ALL DAY LONG! This allowed us to almost double our Canada Day fundraiser from $700 last year, to $1275.59 this year!

Lauren Vail
2010 Shinerama Director, University of New Brunswick - Fredericton
Twitter: @UNB_Shinerama
Facebook: UNB Shinerama

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Mount Allison University Update

Here’s an update from Mount Allison University all the way from Beautiful Sackville New Brunswick!

We’ve held a few events so far to try to reach our goal of $20,000! First we had our “Shinerama Summer Semi” at the Pub. Despite the torrential downpour we still had a great turnout and raised about $600 for Shinerama! Our second Pub Night, the “Shinerama Beach Bash” raised us $800!

We also had a Canada BBQ that helped us push our total to $2,739.37 so far!

We have a few other events already planned, such as a Bottle Drive on July 10th, Tequila Wave on July 10th and a Garden Party/Silent Auction on July 29th! It’s shaping up to be an exciting summer!

I hope everyone’s enjoying the summer! Good Luck with your campaigns!

Shinerama Chair 2010, Mount Allison University
Facebook: MTA Shinerama