I am not cynical about Shinerama

I had entirely forgotten about Shinerama until a group of friendly but fast-talking freshmen approached me on the corner of Bank and Sunnyside. While I'm not about to succumb to the ravages of old age, I'm also too old to be approached by hordes of 18 year old boys; I knew something was up! Then they started to talk about cystic fibrosis, and I noticed their matching shirts (far less gaudy and conspicuous than when I was in undergrad). I felt the fall breeze on my skin and remembered - it's Shinerama season!

Nostalgia and misty-eyes ensued. "Ohhhh, I remember Shinerama. I did that when I was YOUR age!" The young men were polite about my brief lapse into condescension, and waited for me to fish some loose change out of my laptop bag.

For the uninitiated, Shinerama is the largest charitable fundraising campaign in Canada's university system. Since 1961, Shinerama has raised over 20 million dollars for Cystic Fibrosis Canada. As someone who did her undergrad at Laurier, I can safely say that I am among the initiated. Shinerama started at Laurier, and there is a great amount of fervour surrounding the event. As incoming frosh, we were expected to have an enthusiasm for Shinerama that bordered on cult-like. The zealous atmosphere surrounding Shinerama, and it's pairing with the "rah rah" frosh rallies that littered the campus all week, led some of my cohort to be cynical about the whole affair.

Shinerama has had more serious problems than eye-rolling undergrads in the last years. In 2008, Carleton University decided to ditch Shinerama on account of the cause. Cystic fibrosis, the student council argued, is primarily a disease affecting Caucasian males - the council wanted to support a cause that was more, shall we say, "diverse". This decision was later reversed, but not before a whack of media coverage briefly thrust Shinerama (and Carleton itself) into the spotlight.

I am not cynical about Shinerama, and here are some reasons why.

1. Regarding the Carleton fiasco - the story of cystic fibrosis is more complicated than Carleton's student council initially presented it. This has been well documented, and I don't wish to dredge up old controversies. The primary point to make here is that "Caucasian" and "white" aren't synonymous. I love Carleton's critical edge and concern with issues of diversity, but this wasn't the school's most effective demonstration of these qualities.

2. As far as the social pressure put on students to participate...by the time kids hit university, they have undergone greater social pressure to engage in lesser activities.

3. For students who do want to participate, it's a positive and effective way of meeting other people. You get to spend time out in what might be a new city, being giddy, making new friends, flirting, people-watching, and (hopefully) giving community members a positive impression of "young people today".

4. Speaking of "positive impression", Shinerama volunteers are generally well-trained. They are polite and thank donors profusely. They are sometimes annoyingly chipper or flighty or obsequious, but they are also young adults going through an extremely socially stressful life transition. So some slack is required. Plus, their unbridled giddiness can be fun to watch. Today I saw a herd of young women dancing to Aqua's "Barbie Girl" - in the Glebe. Ridiculous, but also kind of adorable.(Again with the condescension!)

5. The best thing about about Shinerama - They give donors a "I contributed to Shinerama" sticker so that you're not inundated with requests for money all day long. They may not offer them, but they should. I always ask, and I complain if they don't have any.

Of course, in all the excitement of fundraising and adding each other on Facebook, Shinerama volunteers can easily forget the "reason for the season", as they say. I was impressed today when the guys who approached me started by talking about cystic fibrosis - asking me open-ended questions about what I know rather than immediately asking me for change. This doesn't happen often, though. I find that most students know some basic facts about the disease, but few can tell you WHERE your donation is going, exactly. ("For cystic fibrosis!" is not a useful answer.) They should give students a blurb about the research that Cystic Fibrosis Canada does, or a breakdown of how donations are spent, or something beyond the "fast facts" that they usually throw at you.

That criticism aside, I believe Shinerama is a worthy fundraising event that ultimately benefits people living with CF, as well as the student volunteers and the communities in which they're situated. If you run across Shinerama volunteers this weekend, give some change their way! And try not to bore them with misty-eyed stories of your undergrad days like I did.