Red Nose Day

Sunday 1 May 2011

The other day I came across a charity organization called Comic Relief and its most important event, The Red Nose Day and a thought you woul like to know a bit about it, so here it is.

 
Comic Relief is a charity which was founded in the United Kingdom in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia and launched live on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the noted charity worker Jane Tewson, who established it as the operating name of Charity Projects, a registered charity in England and Scotland. 

 


Its aim is to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people's immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice."

Comic Relief enforces the "Golden Pound Principle" where every single pound donated is spent on charitable projects. Since the 1980s, Comic Relief has raised over £650 million.

The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon* event held in March except for the two first editions which were held consecutively.

(*A telethon is a fundraising event broadcast on television that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political, or other allegedly worthy cause.)

Red Nose Day is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money. The first Red Nose Day was held in 1988 on the 5^th of February and since then it has been held on the second or third Friday in March.

In 2011 it was on the 18^th of March and on the appeal night it was revealed that approximately 50 million red noses have been sold so far. 

Red Nose Day is often treated as a semi-holiday and the day culminates in a live telethon event on BBC One, starting in the evening and going through into the early hours of the morning.

The Red Nose

The most prominent symbol of Comic Relief is a plastic/foam "red nose", which is given in various supermarkets and charity shops such as Oxfam in exchange for a donation to the charity and to make others laugh. People are encouraged to wear them on Red Nose Day to help raise awareness of the charity. The design of the nose is changed each year, beginning with a fairly plain one, which later grew arms, turned into a tomato and even changed colour. Larger noses are also available, and are designed to be attached to the fronts of cars, buildings, and, in 2009, a 6 metre diameter inflatable nose was attached to the DFDS Seaways cruiseferry:  King of Scandinavia. However, the nose's material used for buildings was classed as a fire hazard and was banned.

Since each year the style of noses change some people collect the different variations, the noses have names and in both 2009 and 2011 there were used 3 different noses in the same event.

 2011 noses

These are the official websites for The Red Nose Day and Comic Relief.

http://www.rednoseday.com/

http://www.comicrelief.com/

 Hope you like it, Andreia Pinto.