The Students’ Union at Bournemouth University was delighted when its very own Bournemouth RAG collected two national awards at the Fundraising Awards held earlier this month.

RAG, which stands for Raising and Giving, picked up the Local Impact Award for the huge difference they made in the local community, while Shannon Knight beat of thousands of students from across the country to take home the ‘RAG Member of the Year’ prize.

Bournemouth RAG is student led, and every year donates huge amounts of money to both local and national charities. In 2015/16 they raised over £120,000 with the money going to help the likes of Dorset Rape Crisis, and Dorset disability charity Diverse Abilities.

This money is raised through a number of events held throughout the academic year, including Leggit, where Bournemouth University students have to get sponsorship before attempting to get as far away from Bournemouth as possible without spending any money.

Shannon Knight was delighted to receive the award.

“It was an amazing experience to be nominated for the awards we received, let alone win two out of the three. When I saw I had been nominated for RAG Member of the Year I didn’t think for a second I would actually win the award”.

Emma Smith is the Activities Development Manager at SUBU, and oversees Bournemouth RAG.

“I am absolutely thrilled with the success we achieved at the National Student Fundraising Awards. To be shortlisted for three awards was amazing, but to win two of them was completely beyond our expectations.”

“We are of course indebted to Diverse Abilities, who have not only showed us unrivalled support this year, but also nominated us for the Local Impact Award”.

The ambition to beat last year’s total is already evident within the Students’ Union, with Vice President Activities Jonathan Leung making this clear.

“With both these award wins I’m sure SUBU will continue to do even better in the future, and we’ll be going for that RAG of the Year soon!”