Community and Victory Mood: Join the Countdown Party in Copenhagen
Excited volunteers gather at Nordea to celebrate the count with cake from La Glace and exchange good anecdotes from a successful fundraising day.
The screen inside Nordea at Vesterport reads 1 October at 15:08. There is silence as both the bank's and Red Cross Capital's employees prepare to welcome the volunteer meeting point managers who are going in and counting the money collected at their meeting points. All day long, the streets have been filled with volunteer enthusiasts who have been collecting for the Red Cross' national fundraiser 2023.
Finally, the first volunteer meeting leaders enter the room and are greeted by Red Cross flags and balloons. On the table in the middle of the room is a large layer cake from Denmark’s oldest pastry shop, La Glace. Across the cake, which is decorated with marzipan roses and chocolate swirls, is written “No One Should Eat Alone.” After the volunteers at the meeting points have counted the money from their meeting points, they can eat cake together and exchange stories from the collection day.
The volunteer meeting leaders carry heavy bags full of coins to be poured into the counting machine. In the following minutes, the next volunteers start trickling in, and the room fills with a tense atmosphere and chatter in the corners.
Volunteers contribute with a positive atmosphere
In the queue for the counting machine, four happy girls sit and eat cake while they wait. They have been volunteering at the meeting point in inner Frederiksberg. When they are asked how their day has been, they smile broadly and answer in unison that the atmosphere has been positive all day at their meeting point.
“Everyone has been super happy and positive about having to help,” one of them explains.
“They have also been mindful of providing feedback from their trips about what worked and what didn't, so we have been left with a feeling that everyone helped everyone,” she also interjects.
The good atmosphere brought by the volunteer collectors also rubs off on the four meeting point volunteers;
“You get incredibly happy when people come and are in a good mood,” they describe.
It's not just on the routes that the volunteer collectors have been able to feel the good mood. The four meeting point volunteers also describe how they have contributed to the good atmosphere;
"When we had counted the money from the individual groups, we shouted out loud how much they had collected, and then the different collectors applauded each other. So that way there was a really good atmosphere at the meeting place. A good winning atmosphere."
“Thank you to everyone who donated”
This winning spirit can also be felt inside Nordea, where the collection amounts are continuously updated on a large board by the Capital Red Cross's fundraising manager, Trine Steffensen.
A little after 18 p.m. all the money is counted and Trine announces the final amount for the Capital's collection, which is a whopping DKK 1.312.121. That's DKK 300.000 more than what we collected last year.
"Thank you to everyone who has collected. It couldn't be better. We are so happy, and we will use the money wisely in the Red Cross," are the last words from the fundraiser leader, putting a nice end to a Sunday in the spirit of community.