By Kalle Korpela & Meadhbh McHugh
Vincent de Paul’s infamous slave auction kicked things off for the Society’s annual awareness-raising week. The event featured many naked bodies, and the audience were sprayed liberally with cola by members of the Ski Club.
One minor incident occured at the event when Trinity American footballer Rob McDowell slipped on a wet surface whilst attempting to perform a backflip at the auction. He suffered a minor concussion and was out of training for a week. The incident shouldn’t affect his chances of selection for the World team, for which he is shortlisted.
VDP raised ¤400 over the course of the week, and the society’s main fundraising event, the “Big Chrimbo Panto” started its run last night.
President Stephen Denham said that they hope to entice an audience of 900 to 1200 to the panto, Beauty and the Beast, over its two-day run. There are 50 children involved, as well as 20 adults with learning disabilites, 20 actors and 20 students backstage.
The charity organises more than 20 different activities weekly aimed at helping impoverished children and adults in many different ways, including homework clubs in primary schools, redecorating dilapidated flats, and soup runs to help the homeless.
Trinity News spoke with VDP veteran and activities coordinator Louisa Miller to find out about student involvement in the society. “Everyone is busy, but we all have an hour to give”. The society has over 500 active volunteers.
When asked about the fund-raising targets set for this week, Miller stated that the services are expensive to run and need funds to be maintained, but the real target is raising people’s awareness, which has been met “thanks to the efforts to all those involved”.
VDP also held a flashdance at the Pav last Friday to promote the panto, which is on tonight at 7:30pm in the O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere.
