The University of Regina Business Student’s Society (BSS) is hosting a lip sync battle fundraiser this Thursday as part of their Five Days For the Homeless initiative.
The lip sync battle will take place on Thursday evening at Dazzel karaoke bar. “It’s a great event for students to come out, have a good night, watch their friends embarrass themselves, and raise money for a really important cause,” said BSS team member, Noah Rainbow.
One University of Regina student, Rileigh Nurse is particularly excited for the opportunity to reunite her old lip sync team.
“I did it when I was in grade eight with some friends, then again in grade twelve, and now we’re going into our last year of university so it’s almost like a closing chapter of all of our lives to get together and do a Backstreet Boys impersonation lip sync battle,” said Nurse with a laugh.
“We as university students don’t get to do much stuff that’s just for ourselves and it’s fun to get to do something for a good cause with your friends.”
“It’s a national campaign that’s put on by the Canadian Association of Business Students and all the schools involved do their own campaigns on campus and raise money for a local charity that addresses homelessness,” said Rainbow.
“Homelessness is an issue that affects everyone. It is not an issue that we can avoid, and the problem is becoming more and more pervasive in our community and city. It is important that people take this time to reflect on what they can do to make a difference in our collective community,” said BSS team member, Serra Al-Katib.
“This friendly competition will engage the audience and also raise money. Entry is available to everyone in the public, which means anyone can come. We hope that the turnout will be great, as it is the last evening event for the campaign.”
“No donation is too small.”
The lip sync battle is part of an annual five-day fundraiser which is put on by the BSS to raise money for Charmichael Outreach, a Regina-based charity that provides services to those experiencing poverty/ homelessness.
The fundraiser also includes five nights where three university students sleep outside in the winter, collecting donations. The goal for the campaign is to raise $40,000. Carmichael outreach uses the funds to provide meals for the homeless.
“We’ve raised over $400,000 in the last 13 years as an organization which basically feeds over 250 people (per year) for three years,” said Rainbow.
Two years ago, the BSS team was excitedly planning their fundraiser however, this plan was unfortunately halted when everyone went into quarantine in March 2020.
“It was this weekend exactly two years ago when we were in the lounge having our sign painting party to paint the signs we were going to use throughout the campaign and by the end of the next day, the campaign was canceled. So a lot of the work that was put in to get ready went to dust,” said Rainbow.
