Today is your last chance to sign up for RAG LOST

A new year has rolled around, and as Cambridge’s freshers and not-so-freshers begin their journey into this year’s chaotic jungle of VK-fuelled clubnights and late-night essay crises, the comforting flame of charity burns ever bright, held aloft by the university’s main charity organisation and largest student society, RAG.

RAG is responsible for university-wide fundraising events like Jailbreak and Blind Date, and raises around £100,000 for charity every year. This October has also seen the introduction of RAGtime, RAG’s fantastic new Monday clubnight, which features student DJs and which raised over £2,000 for charity on its opening night. And now, it’s time for Michaelmas term’s biggest and most exciting charity event: LOST.

That’s right, LOST is back, and on 4th November an army of daring Cambridge students will be racing to make it back home from an Exciting Mystery Location™ somewhere in the UK, with the usual caveats: get home within 24 hours, and don’t spend a penny of your own money. It goes without saying that everyone will be wearing fancy dress – this is Cambridge, after all. Play your cards right and you could walk away with any one of a spectacular array of prizes

Now we’ve got your attention. On top of a rush of altruistic vibes, participants can win wonderful prizes for raising funds, completing challenges, and getting back as quickly as possible, or alternatively by producing a world-class video or particularly extravagant fancy dress. Previous prizes have included tickets to Selwyn Snow Ball, as well as bottles of champagne and, perhaps most enticingly of all, dozens of bags of exquisite vanilla fudge. This year’s winners will win a set of Jesus May Ball tickets for the entire team.

HYPE

Transported in a blacked-out bus to an Exciting Mystery Location™, hundreds of miles outside the Cambridge bubble, participants get 24 hours to make their way back home by sweet-talking bus drivers for free rides, wheedling donations out of passers-by, or hitchhiking with generous strangers.

Getting home is only half the story, though. Our intrepid fundraisers, in teams of 2 or 3, will have a hoard of wacky challenges to complete along the way, which range from making your own sandwich at Subway to blagging a ride in a helicopter. Honestly, you haven’t lived until you’ve played duck-duck-goose with a group of strangers in Birmingham train station.

Following the staggering success of last year’s inaugural Varsity LOST, Cambridge have joined forces with the Other Place once again, and the two universities will be going head-to-head to complete the most challenges, raise the most money, and get home the quickest. Heartbreakingly, in 2016, Cambridge lost (no pun intended), and so this year we’ve got a point to prove.

GDBO am I right

LOST teams raise cash for charity by appealing to the generosity of their friends and family, who provide sponsorship, which totaled a whopping £17,500 last year. All funds raised go directly to RAG’s selected charities, which are a combination of local, national and international organisations.

With the LOST launch night and first information evening already behind us, the time has now come for YOU to sign up. Find a mate or two, and sign up HERE before 20th October for a chance to escape the bubble and raise tons of money for some great causes. Your £20 sign-up fee does of course include your very own LOST 2017 T-shirt.

Our participant evening on 28th October will go into more detail and give you all the information you could possibly need, but in the meantime, if you have any doubts or questions at all, head to our website for an FAQ to be kept in the loop through emails. Or, if that’s not your thing, go to our Facebook page and slip us a cheeky like – we’ll post updates with everything you need to know.

So, whether you’re a fresher or a finalist, LOST is for you. Explore the wonders of the United Kingdom, push yourself to do new and exciting things, and pick up some stories to whip out on every swap from now until graduation, all while raising shedloads of moolah for some fantastic causes. Signups close TODAY, so there’s only one question left to ask…

What are you waiting for? Sign up!