Wintec students make a splash for True Colours

Wintec first-year Bachelor of Communication students devised a two-hour colour splash fundraising event at the Hamilton City Campus this week.

The project to “Splash your Wintec whanau” was in support of True Colours Day and aimed at raising funds for children with critical health conditions. Staff and student volunteers were splashed with water balloons and filled buckets.

The event was a joint effort by the class, who are studying marketing this term. Project Leads Ruby and Alexus Mark won the approval of the True Colours clients after pitching the idea of adding a colourful twist to the viral ‘bucket challenge’ for the fundraiser.

The pair hoped the event would be a fun trending topic and would draw the attention of other students on campus who could splash their kaiako for a gold coin donation.

True Colours, a charity organisation located in Kirikiriroa, partnered with the Wintec students to create awareness of True Colours Day and to build social engagement on their platforms.

“Everybody seemed to enjoy. It was good to see people laughing and heaps came in to donate, which was encouraging,” Ruby said.

Lexi added that although they were pleased with the turnout, pushing it more before the event would have resulted in a larger participation. They hope that people will continue contributing until the last day, “We hope that people will continue to contribute and hope other companies and schools will hop on the challenge.”

Abby Dalgety, the marketing tutor, said it was good to have the first-year students working with real clients, something the Wintec Bachelor of Communication is known for. “It was good for them to action their ideas instead of just pitching. Doing activations and hands-on learning brings in a real-world experience.”

Abby added that it was fulfilling working for a charity organisation that students can align their values with. “The event had a good crowd with full donation boxes and scanned codes. We will do a total of the contribution and share the amount that we were able to come up with.” she said.

Mercy Chepkoech, is an International Student studying the NZ Diploma in Journalism.