By Claudia Sorescu
When it comes to ways to get involved with the Students’ Union, I could talk to you for days. I’m really active in societies and clubs (anything from martial arts to volunteering to the Lord of the Rings Society), so I know my way around the Union, and I’ve always been really impressed with how easy it is to become a part of the community here. There’s definitely a feeling of belonging that you get from being here, no matter what you decide to do with your spare time, and I couldn’t love it more.
For example, I think one of the best ways to get involved here is Bummit, the world’s largest student-led hitch-hike. Every year, a thousand students head out to raise money and awareness for a huge number of charities: jus
t one trip last year, from Sheffield to Romania (which is actually where I’m from, so I got to show my more adventurous friends around!), raised more than £85,000 for 9 charities. I’ll admit my inner couch potato was skeptical about the whole hitchhiking thing, until this February, when I got dragged into a smaller version of Bummit called the Rat Race.
The concept is the same, but my team-mate Chris’ and my destination was Manchester, and to keep things interesting, we had a long list of challenges to complete along the way, which went anywhere from having to chase a builder down to tak
e a selfie with him…
…to getting a present from Town Hall officials (sadly, our negotiating skills couldn’t get us anything more than a free parking ticket), persuading Chris to get fake nails (he wasn’t impressed), and even running through a fountain- you don’t really want to be com
pletely soaked when hitchhiking, but it worked out. We had a somewhat scary walk through Manchester late at night, stumbled upon a brilliant jazz gig by complete accident, and overall had a fantastic time.
It sounds like a silly thing to do, but when you’re there you get to meet some kind and amazing
people that otherwise you wouldn’t have had the chance to speak to. A person we randomly met for a challenge was directly affected by the charity we were raising money for, Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, which suddenly put everything into perspective for us and made our cause tangible.
Bummit is just one way to get involved here at our Union, but I defi
nitely think it’s the most rewarding one. It was a crazy day, but immensely satisfying, and if anything it taught me to take on more challenges and break out of my routine, which this time turned into a chance to make someone’s life better. As they say, sometimes you really just need to take a leap of faith and see where you end up!