What is Rag?

After quite a lot of feedback from various Americans who somehow (??) found the site, I've been urged to explain a couple of things.

Primarily the question has been "what the heck is with that logo?" along with various humourous interpretations (see forum).
The answer is that the logo is "mean't" to represent the UK collecting charity cash in a bucket. Hope that clears that one up.

Ok, so what is Rag exactly...

Well there's various interpretations out there including one that has Rag as an acronym for "Raising And Giving" which essentially sums up what Rags do on the surface, ie: Raising cash from the unsuspecting public and Giving it to charities, both local and national.

However Rag is a lot more than that. Primarily they are born out of University or similar educational establishments where the students want to do a little bit more than just study or sit in a bar getting completely drunk (although there's a lot more of the latter goes on). To summarise what it means to a lot of people Rag is about:

• Being part of a team
• Doing something fun or slightly nuts to raise cash
• Motivating a group of hungover volunteers to stand outside in the freezing rain or snow, blazing hot sunshine, etc...
• Making people laugh as they find you dressed like a fairy, bear, bride, or variations of "nutcase"
• Making the impossible possible, and miracles happen (like Rag Week )

As many will probably tell you, the fact that Rags through the ages have raised a lot of very serious money for a lot of very grateful charities is wonderful... but at the end of the day everyone has their own very personal reasons for doing it.

(Of course this means that someone will disagree or wish to amend this definition so if you're one of them, please feel free to put your 2 penneth worth in, in the forum.)