Hark gentle sector, ‘tis Friday, the best day of the week because you get to hear from the illustrious, wise and modest Society Diary.
Diary is pleased to have left the miserable month of January, only to find the month of February seems strikingly similar. Alas, at least the cruel Dry January is over so one can get whammoed to forget about it. (For the record, Diary does not condone binge drinking, only having a good time).
Anywho... Shall we begin? Here are some of the things that happened this week in charity land.
An inappropriate bird offends the bird app
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ruffled some feathers this week for posting too many pictures of woodcocks.
BTO’s innocent posts about the endangered bird were picked up as something more unsavoury by the Twitter algorithm and the charity was locked out of its own account for a week during the Big Garden Bird Watch.
The charity tweeted last week: “Join the search for UK breeding Woodcock! We need volunteers to count displaying male Woodcock in set woodland sites to improve our understanding of their declines & inform future conservation work http://bto.org/woodcock”
This was clearly too many cocks for Twitter’s liking, but the social media platform has yet to comment on the situation. However, the bird charity's account has now been reinstated, and billionaire Twitter overlord Elon Musk tweeted that it was an “ironic” situation.
BTO Scotland has now resorted to calling the woodc*ck the red-listed bird-that-cannot-be-named, but hopes this social media blunder has drawn some well-needed attention to an animal in urgent need of support.
Sweet hearts = bad
Heart Research UK launched its #LessSweetMoreHeart campaign this week in partnership with the app MyFitnessPal – you know, the one that tells you to weigh yourself (not happening, buddy) and informs you, somewhat mockingly, that you’ve only moved 35 steps today.
The campaign’s aim is to reduce people’s sugar intake. Heart Research UK has placed two anatomical models of hearts made entirely of sugar in the streets of London. One symbolises the amount of sugar Brits consume yearly while the other – significantly smaller heart – is the recommended amount for a Briton.
This is to convince people to lower their sugar intake as too much sugar can be a cause for fatal heart disease.
Unfortunately, it just made Diary want sugar, which is the fault of this sugar-obsessed columnist rather than the campaign itself. Chocolate bar, anyone?
A haunting CPR dummy
Charities have been taking TikTok by storm recently, particularly St John Ambulance’s account, which has over 34,000 followers and 409,000 likes across all its videos.
One of its videos is a CPR compression dummy co-opted to look like its sailing on a boat “to get 100s of chest compressions from a room of overly excited kids”.
Diary’s favourite feature of the charity account is how St John Ambulance seem to incorporate this CPR dummy into other videos. It has been known to pop up behind employees while they try and give life-saving advice on camera.
This is a trick Diary would love to incorporate into their office life, much to the dismay of CSM colleagues.
@stjohn_ambulance My first aid brings all the Annies to the yard. #FirstAid #Ambulance #Charity #fyp ♬ Texting but with a Wife - Maya + Hunter
Beaver time
In other news, RSPB reported a successful beaver relocation this week. A family of seven beavers was moved to Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve with a helping hand from the charity.
This is part of the plan to speed up the return of beavers to the area, so two adults and five young’uns were moved there. This particular family was moved from Tayside because ‘beaver activity’ was causing commotion.
Look below for a heartwarming image of a beaver kit swimming in its new home.
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