On Wednesday 14 December, ninety-two staff and students from West College Scotland took to the pavements in their festive best to raise money for HNC Graphic Design with Illustration student Eddie McColl, who sadly passed away on the 28 October after falling unwell in College.

Although the weather was a bit dreich, it didn’t put a dampener on the Festive 5k with nearly 100 people turning up to take part and pay tribute to Eddie who was known as a fun loving joker to his fellow classmates and lecturers.
All in all this event raised just under £1000 for Eddie’s family and the British Heart Foundation.

Curriculum and Quality Leader Bob McEwan said,

‘We’ve been really amazed at the College spirit and support for arranging such a touching fundraiser for Eddie - we are sure he would’ve approved. Everyone really together for a great cause and a big thank you to all that contributed whether operationally on the day or by taking part.

A big thank you to McDonalds, Herbalife and Bidvest for sponsoring the Finisher bags and to Sixty Ate Bar & Grill, The Titan Crane and Dominos Clydebank for their raffle donations.
In addition to this fundraiser, staff and students in the Greenock campus also fundraised with their feet. They got together to ‘Strip the Willow’ – a sum of £428 was raised whilst jigging along to live music.

Greenock Staff member Dorothy Stewart said, ‘We just wanted to help and a campus fundraiser seemed like the right thing to do. It was a jolly event, full of cheer. It went really well! Lots of spectators too. The live music was brill – we ended up with a fiddler, 3 guitars, a piano and the accordion & the music tech set up speakers etc so was a real performance.’

If you’d like to make a donation, the JustGiving crowdfunding page for Eddie’s family and the BHF is still open here.

For more pictures please visit our Facebook Page! (Photography creditr:  Nick Peacock (College Photographer). Colin Poultney, Jonathan Brown, Barry Cameron (Student Photographers).