Lund’s Erasmus Student Network (ESN) of Lund organised a “Flash-mob Pillow Fight for charity” at Stortorget last Sunday. The last edition was in 2010 in Lund, but this time the event is attached to charity. 1200 SEK were harvested for the NGO ShelterBox.
Around 50 people showed up on the afternoon of Sunday February 22nd to fight with pillows. They wanted to “beat” each other but also to feel stress relief and to get some exercise. The fight was free to everybody and between fights, people can donate the amount they can afford. Some people didn’t participate but donated. The event lasted one hour, and at the end it finished as a rugby game.
“We were expecting more people. 257 ESNers promised to attend at the Facebook event and 74 answered ‘maybe’.”, Emina Salic said, one of the organizers of the event and also one of the ESN volunteers. She confessed that she ”was hoping for more people to show up. Note to ourselves: do it on a weekday.”
Support communities
ESN chose ShelterBox as the NGO to which benefit from the event donations.
“It provides emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis,” the ESN group explains on the Facebook page event. The Erasmus organization did some research before and discovered that Sweden was one of the countries that gave less money to this NGO than the other European countries. ESN was also quickly convinced by the idea of a box that can provide everything for saving and feeding people.
A shelter box costs 6000 SEK and it is the central concept ofShelterBox. .The box provides everything that victims need, depending on where they are living and what their needs are. Most importantly, there is a 10 person dome tent, a barbecue, some pans, ten thermal blankets and sleeping bags, water ground sheets, utensils and school supplies for children.
Not famous
ESN Lund was disappointed with the result of only harvesting 1200 SEK for the NGO. Despite the fact that ESNers, students but also “family and non-students showed up and donated too, this is not very much,” Emina Salic asserted.
But after all, it was the first time this event was connected to charity , and this kind of event is not so famous in Sweden. If every student association would gather their interest around this cause, the result will be better by joining Swedish, international and exchange students, but also PhD and teachers.
Christina Freisleben, master student in “Globalisation, Brands and Consumption” from Austria testified that her home university in Krems also organizes pillow fights. However, this event is not attached to a charity.
Check out photographer Kalandranis Dimitris photos from the pillow fight in Lund here:
1 Comment
Emina Salic
I’m the president of ESN Lund and one of the main characters in the article. I feel like it’s my duty to correct some misleading details. I believe the negative tone of the article does not reflect the events of the day as there was actually a very positive atmosphere at the pillow fight. To begin, the event was AWESOME. There was not one person that did not have a big smile on their face as they hit each other with pillows. I was extremely happy that so many people showed up! Obviously, it would have been great if even more people joined the fun, but after all it was Sunday noon, no more words needed. At one point in the article it says that I was unhappy with the people coming and donating, even families and non-students… Let me clarify this, any donation, not matter how small it was, was very much welcomed by us and we were extremely thankful for ALL people that donated.
Furthermore, I have never read an article that says bad things or is demeaning towards people who are trying their best and actually managed to raise money for a charity. I believe this article completely missed the point and the focus should’ve been on the charity and raising awareness. It should have been pointed out that unlike most charity cases, giving money was actually a lot of fun! Although, we had hoped to raise more funds we did provide vital awareness which is just as important as donating! Our facebook page reached just under 5000 people and this does not include the posts from the Lund University facebook page that would have reached many more. It is a shame that our efforts to raise money, create awareness and offer a fun activity were tarnished by such an negative and false article.