This academic year has been an amazing one for so many reasons but what really made it special was the amazing work done by our community and welfare officer, Seren! She has gone above and beyond this year to plan fundraisers, welfare sessions and community outreach programs.
In October, she kicked it off with a Black History month scavenger hunt, where we ran all over Edinburgh solving clues to donate money to The Anti-Racist Educator! Later in October Seren organised for some of us to go to Craigourpark Primary School to host trampoline themed PE sessions every Thursday for 4 weeks. An incredible amount of members got involved and had a blast helping the children have fun and teaching them some Trampoline moves. Seeing the children have fun and enjoy the sport we all love was an amazing reward! This continued on into November where, despite the increase in assessments and deadlines, Seren continued to organise events. We hosted a disability session at Pleasance with Lothian Disability Sport, which gave young people with disabilities a chance to come into the hall and have a go on Trampolines. Again, our members showed their support by helping, spotting and coaching during this incredibly rewarding session.
Around this time, Seren started planning our Charity Race Night. Our charity for this year was Conscious, a student-lead mental health charity aiming to educate, destigmatise and offer help for all things mental health. With the support of the rest of the committee we were able to host a brilliant night in January, attended by Tramps but also many friends and flatmates, eager to show their support. It was an amazing night with lots of fun and betting, where we managed to raise a large amount for Conscious.
In February, Seren organised a Palentines session, where members had a chance to bring a friend to training and have a go on trampolines. This is an amazing chance to get to meet new people and highlight the importance of friendship.
At the beginning of March Seren organised our very own well-being week for the club. This included a Conscious Conversation, where the charity came to the gym and held a talk on mental health, how to recognise signs of mental illnesses and how to help. We also had two sessions where Seren organised compliment cards! Each member drew a name and wrote a little compliment card for that person. University can be very overwhelming and isolating and this activity was a lovely way to remind people that they are not alone and are always appreciated! Seren also managed to set up a blood drive with Give Blood 4 Good at Edinburgh Blood Donor centre that ran throughout our well-being week. This was such a good way to give back to the community and help out people who are in need.
In addition to all of these activities, Seren has constantly been sharing information and resources, as well as updating our welfare pack! She always lets us know about opportunities regarding mental health and wellbeing around Edinburgh. Most importantly, Seren has been a positive, kind and caring presence in the club. She’s always looking out for people and is and is always ready to listen and talk to people when they need it. Seren is such a welcoming and bright source of energy, always lifting other people up! Her work as community and welfare officer this year has been incredible and we are forever grateful for all the hard work she puts into her role!
