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Rampage Honour Local Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

On the 1st of January, a Canterbury based soldier, Pte Joseva Saqanagonedau Vatubua, 24, died in an explosion in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 5th Battalion based in Canterbury, and was deployed to Afghanistan in October.

In light of this tragic event, one of Canterbury’s student-run bar crawl companies, Rampage, decided to donate the proceeds of the Army themed night out on the 30th of January to Help For Heroes, the official charity of the British armed forces.

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We caught up with the Director of Rampage, Chris Tytherleigh, who told us more about the event and the reasons behind it.

Carl: Why did you decide to donate tonight’s proceeds to Help for Heroes?

Chris: We planned to do this event three months ago – the Rampage army theme- and then there was the tragedy on the 1st of January and in light of that, we initially thought that we would cancel it out of respect but then we spoke to the council and to the police and to students and decided to go ahead with the event and just to make the event a win-win for everyone and to contribute all the proceeds to Help for Heroes.

Carl: How much are you looking to raise tonight?

Chris: We’re hoping to raise about 1000 pounds. We’re selling wristbands for help for heroes. We’ll be putting in a big contribution. All of the reps who have sold t-shirts on commission have also contributed.

Carl: Why did you decide to use Rampage, a student night out, to help the charity?

Chris: Rampage is an event which is for students, run by students and profited by the students. It was a choice between cancelling the event or all having a good night out and then donating all of the profits to the charity.

Carl: Are the students on tonight’s Rampage aware that they are supporting Help for Heroes?

Chris: Yes. We sent out a message to everyone letting them know that they were helping the charity buy going on tonight’s Rampage.

Carl: Do you think that tonight’s event will help in changing the image of Rampage, a student run bar crawl?

Chris: We hope so. I think that some local residents might have a perception of students and they are not always positive and I think it’s good that local residents and other members of the community see students as doing something beneficial for charity. There are a lot of good things that students do, such as RAG and it is often not seen by members of the community. There are other student-run bar crawls out there who have been seen in the press giving a derogatory view of students and we want to change that. Rampage is about students having fun and everyone benefitting from it. We’re not just one big company eager for money. Our focus is on students having fun but being respectful to local residents. It is important for us that Rampage is seen as being well run and that it does not add to that derogatory view of students.

Carl: Is this the first time that Rampage has helped a charity out?

Chris: Yes. Rampage only started a year ago and this is our ninth event and this is the first time that we have done something like this.

Carl: And will you carry on with supporting charities?

Chris: We hope so. Rampage is run by Pop Ya Cherry, the big student night at the Works and PYC has been involved in helping out charities such as RAG but we hope tonight will lead to helping out more charities in future events.

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Students on Rampage were also in favour of the charitable event. Alex Zaiac and George Micans, both students at the University of Kent, said they were “more than happy” to help the charity. They went on to say that they would encourage friends to buy the t-shirts for the bar crawl, as the money raised was going to a great cause.

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