Written by: Plymouth Indian Society https://www.upsu.com/societies/indiannetwork/
Holi is the Hindu festival that welcomes springtime and is celebrated as a community. It is traditionally celebrated with coloured powders and lots of fun!! We opened this event up to all students of the University of Plymouth as well as members of the general public.
Being a Marine Biology student as the chairwoman and knowing that this event was taking place during Green Week, I wanted to make this event as eco-friendly and plastic-free as possible.
"Everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming! Music was great and there was a great atmosphere."
- Holi Festival Attendee
The colours that we used during the event were bought from a small business, called Ministry of Colours, who are passionate about sharing the origin of colour throwing and Holi. I ensured that colours were biodegradable and skin safe in order to prevent microplastic pollution.
With the help of our treasurer, for over 15+ hours, we packed the coloured powder into individual paper bags. This was, again, to avoid having hundreds of plastic bags being discarded and causing pollution. We even had a 5L flask filled with water for people to wash their faces/eyes with should they need it instead of bringing bottled water to avoid having any plastic at the event.
"I'm glad I had the chance to get involved even though I'm not Indian"
- Holi Festival Attendee
"I wish more people could experience it. It was great!
- Holi Festival Attendee
I spent weeks getting in touch with Anthony Nolan (who helps those with blood cancers) so we could do some fundraising for them. As someone who is an ethnic minority, I wanted to raise awareness of the lack of donors people like me have when it comes to blood cancers.
Being the chairwoman of such a big society has given me the platform to not only interact with those in my immediate community but those who are also part of my ethnic community who I don't know.
In the space of less than 6 hours, we managed to raise over £340 by selling colours and tickets to our event to the general public.
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