Fundraising for Egypt

It’s a cold grey Friday afternoon in January and Jen has just lost the circulation in two of her fingers, not to worry - she still has one good hand to dish out cakes and take in money.

The main doors to the Graham Kerr building are familiar territory for any expedition fundraiser, it’s hard to pass through without spotting a table laden with home baking and the smiley faces (or not) of expedition members peddling their wares.

Bake-sales are the bread and butter of expedition fundraising and serve the purpose of both making money and giving members the opportunity to enthuse to students and staff about their expedition and intended research, however raising enough money to fund an expedition from bake-sales alone is never going to happen no matter how good your carrot cake may be.

Everyone loves a pub quiz especially an expedition pub quiz and ours was no different. We were lucky to have an excellent turn out on the night and it went without a hitch, even though half our team were away sunning themselves in Egypt pretending to do work. Trying to find raffle prizes on the day of the quiz is never advised but what the prizes may have lacked in monetary value was certainly compensated for by comedy value. A particular highlight had to be Michael winning his own used candle, serves the cheapskate right.

At the end of November we hosted a club night in Flat 0/1, I pulled in several favours which saw us get the venue and DJ’s (myself included) for next to nothing. All we had to do now was get people down on the night, teaming up with the Peru Expedition pub quiz proved to be mutually beneficial with people who were just going to be at the club night pre drinking at the quiz and vice versa. A special mention should be made for Emily and her renegade PR techniques which fell nothing short of grabbing random folk on the street in a headlock and dragging them round. For a cold wet night in November the night was a great success and we have been invited back in the spring.

We have a number of events planned over the coming months with more bake-sales, an anti-valentines pub quiz and another club night and band night in the pipeline.

As well as raising money as a group we will be also be flying solo with a range of fundraising ideas, from tough mudder and munro bagging to learning to ride a bike we will be pushing ourselves to the limit earning every penny donated in blood sweat and tears.

So why are we putting ourselves through this? It’s a no brainer really a little bit of effort now will pay massive dividends in the summer when we are spending six weeks in Egypt diving in the Red Sea and carrying out important scientific research. Opportunities like this don’t come along every day and we are all very lucky and equally excited to be in the position we are in.

Guy x

Science that involves everyone

What does a marine research expedition involve? Having fun raising money? Yup! Lots of not-so-fun planning and logistics? Yup! Getting to travel to a tropical location to do awesome research? Definitely!  Learning about the natural world around us and investigating how our oceans are being affected by all sorts of human impacts is necessary to know how best to conserve them. But it is not always sufficient. Involving and engaging people in research and conservation issues is vital, because ultimately, the success of any conservation effort depends on the attitudes, interests and understanding of those directly affected.

That is why a major part of our expedition is public outreach and engagement. Even our logo is inspired by involving people with the sea and we are so excited to involve schools and local communities in our work, both here in Glasgow and in Egypt.

In Glasgow, our outreach efforts will be focused on school visits, talks and activities. We want young people to be excited about the ocean and its inhabitants - how about weird looking parasites that live inside bigger animals? Or fish that have beaks or can blow themselves up?  By giving fun, interactive talks and hands on experiments at schools and science festivals we will help them understand that all these animals have important roles in the ocean and appreciate the fascinating natural environment.

We also hope that by constantly updating our website, blog and social networking sites, we reach a wider audience and engage more people than ever in our research.  By posting pictures of the sights we will see in Egypt (both amazing pristine coral reefs and perhaps some that have been impacted by us humans) we can bring these habitats in to people’s homes, perhaps changing an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality that is so easily fell in to when living in cold, rainy Scotland.

When we reach Egypt, our focus will shift to working closely with the local community as a whole. We will ask questions on fishing practices to find out where they fish and who their catch is sold on to but also to find out how the people feel towards marine protected areas; are they a help or a hindrance? In turn, the community has the chance to ask us any questions and improve their knowledge of ocean ecosystems and the threats they are facing. Overall, we hope to help them come up with management ideas that work for the community, have their approval, and will benefit them whilst protecting coral reefs in the long term. We believe this is the best way to ensure any new fishing or conservation regulations will be followed effectively.

So that is what our expedition involves – everyone. The more the merrier. From Scotland to Egypt. Only by actively engaging people will our work be a success. Now let's begin by saying “Awwww” at the cutest little porcupine fish…

Jen x

Follow Our Journey!

 

                                                        

This is the first University of Glasgow undergraduate marine expedition run by the Exploration Society. We are off to the spectactular coral reefs of Dahab, Egypt, where we aim to work on a number of conservation related projects and to collaborate with students and staff from the Suez Canal University.

We will be using this blog to share our expedition experience; from fundraising to the beautiful scenery of Dahab - and not forgetting the awesome science inbetween - you can be with us all the way!

We are online too!



From all of us on the Egypt Expedition,

Lydia, Emily, Guy, Michael and Jen