Student organises bingo fundraiser to raise money for GCU Cold Case Unit

A dedicated student and GCU Cold Case Unit volunteer has organised a themed bingo event to help raise money for Locate International, a charity that investigates missing people cases.

Social Sciences student Julie Bell has volunteered with GCU’s very own Cold Case Unit since its launch in 2021, which works in partnership with Locate International to help locate missing people and their families.

The unit involves a team of student volunteers, who are tasked with reviewing case evidence, working with families who have lost loved ones and even intelligence analysis.

Upon discovering that Locate International, who work globally to help support families who have missing loved one, do not receive funding, the student volunteers decided to start their own fundraising team.

Julie has loved her experience of working alongside the Cold Case Unit and felt the need to do something in order to give back. Rather than asking people to donate, Julie decided to organise a Rock and Roll themed bingo event; complete with prizes donated from businesses from around Glasgow.

The event was held in Glasgow bar St Judes, and raised a total of £537.20

Julie was delighted with the support of her event and explained why she is so passionate about raising money for a cause close to her heart:

Why did you decide to apply to the GCU Cold Case Unit?

“I started volunteering with the Cold Case Unit at the end of my first year and I’ve been really involved since then. It’s a big commitment, but everyone on the team knows that and it involves things that we’re all really interested in. For instance, over the summer we were given the chance to have some time off but no one took it. Everyone was happy to keep doing it, because it doesn’t involve having to do work every single day – you can drop in and out whenever you need. We have set meeting times, but other than that it’s very much flexible around how you want to work.

I’ve personally been working on unidentified people cases, which are cases that involve a person being found but don’t have anything in their possession that helps reveal their identity. For example, the case involving the man found in Balmoral Woods involved us getting to actually visit the area that he was found. That particular experience was really eye-opening and helped bring it home that it’s in fact a real person, not just someone that you’ve been reading about. We had the chance to visit shops in the area, hand out leaflets and speak to members of the public. In one example, we visited a local country fair and got to walk around handing out leaflets and speaking to people about the case.

The minute I heard about it, I knew it was something that I wanted to do. Before I joined, I had read articles about the Cold Case Unit and how it’s held as a highly regarded unit in Scotland. This is very much due to the work of Dr Maureen Taylor and Professor Lesley McMillan, who are also well known in their fields.”

A lot of work goes on behind these cases, you must feel personally connected to them after a long period of time

“You do find that you feel quite attached to the cases that you work on! The case I mentioned earlier about the man in Balmoral Woods was definitely one of them and we had a really high-profile launch for that; it was featured in around 250 newspapers and in media appeals. You do feel connected to a case when there’s been so much work involved and you really want to help find his family. It’s really exciting.

Tell us why you decided to raise funds for the Cold Case Unit and Locate International?

“When I first started volunteering with the Cold Case Unit, we realised that Locate International don’t get any funding and we’re very aware of the costs involved in what they do. For example, if we’re using Open Source Intelligence, you might need to access the National British Archives or newspapers and it costs money the more information you need. Getting access to information can be expensive.

Fortunately, everyone who helps is willing to give their time; ex-policemen, law enforcers, etc. I used to work as a Fraud Investigator for a bank, so we’re all able to bring different skills to the table. Realising how many people go missing, we understand that they can’t all be investigated as thoroughly as the police would like to. The whole premise behind Locate International is to ensure that if there’s anything that can be done to help, it will be done. We might not be able to find them, but we can at least say that we have exhausted every possible route that we could use to find them.”

Tell us about your fundraising idea – how did that all come about?

“We had started thinking about fundraising at the end of the last academic year and wanted to come up with something interactive, rather than just ask the public for money. In my last job, I did quite a lot of charity coordinating so I was used to doing that sort of thing. We decided to do something fun and came up with the idea of ‘Rock and Roll Bingo’; so rather than calling out numbers on a sheet, we will play rock music and get people to note down the song title if they have it.

Locate International is an underrepresented charity and people don’t always consider the importance of looking for missing people until it happens to them. The National Missing Person Unit for Scotland only has four people, so not many people at all and they take around 500 calls a day. They have to prioritise different cases, so it’s a tough job. You have to tell yourself, ‘If it was a member of my family, I’d want to know that everything that could be done is being done.’ Knowing that there are people out there helping out with this for nothing is really important.

Now looking back, how did the event go overall?

“The event went very well, we had loads of people show and everyone had a good time. We had some great prizes including dinner at Ox and Finch, the Auctioneers and Roastit Bubbly Jocks restaurants, vouchers for Tantrum doughnuts, a bus tour of Edinburgh and a bottle of Royal Salute whisky. We had dance-offs when there was more than one person who had a bingo claim, so lots of laughter!

I'm really pleased that I can give something back to Locate for all the education, knowledge and friendships I have made since I began volunteering. Missing people charities are often overlooked until you have a first-hand experience, and Locate volunteers go above and beyond, putting so much time, effort and compassion into every case. It's really important that we have the means to continue doing this, and raising these funds will go a small way to helping us continue that work.”

You can donate further to Julie’s fundraiser here

By Rachael McAlonan

Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media here