Paralympians present prizes to BU Twitter tree winners

The winners of BU’s Twitter tree competition received their prizes from Paralympic athletes in a festive ceremony.
 
This year, the Christmas tree in The Atrium at Talbot Campus is interactive – with a series of Twitter hashtags changing the colours of the lights on the tree.
 
A winning tweet has been chosen each day, with staff and students tweeting in to say what made them #BUproud of BU’s community, support or courses.
 
Twelve winners were chosen in total, receiving prizes including AFC Bournemouth tickets, a Dorset food hamper and a term’s SportBU membership.
 
Several of the winners attended a festive ceremony to receive their prizes from Paralympic athletes - sprinter Ben Rushgrove, swimmer Kate Grey and tennis player Lucy Shuker – who were at BU for an event as part of UK Disability History Month.
 
Oliver Carpenter, a 1st year Marketing student, won a £50 Amazon voucher, after tweeting that he was proud of #BUsupport he received after losing two grandparents.

He said: “I saw the competition advertised in the Atrium and with everything that had happened, I wanted to give my appreciation and my thanks for all the university staff had done and the support they have given me.

“All the prizes were absolutely fantastic, and I was really pleased when I got the Amazon voucher, which will make Christmas a bit cheaper this year!”

Other winning tweets focused on BU’s courses preparing students for future careers, opportunities to undertake overseas placements and BU working with the students’ union to make the university even more environmentally-friendly.

Final year Games Technology student Anthony Willis won two Odeon cinema tickets for his tweet, which said that he was proud of the range of #BUcourses.

“When I saw they were running the competition, I thought I would like to thank the university for everything they do for me and it seemed like a good opportunity to do that,” said Anthony.

“As well as my course, I’m involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities and I’ve met a lot of other students and different people through doing that – so it’s great to see the diversity of people and interests that there are across the university.”

He added: “It’s always nice to win a competition and it was great to have that recognised as something the university likes to hear.” 

Although the competition is now over, people can still change the colour of the tree – tweet @bournemouthuni and tell us why you are proud of #BUcourses (pink) #BUsupport (white) or #BUcommunity (blue).

The tree looks at the last 10 tweets sent and the colour will change depending on the volume of tweets for each hashtag.

BU’s Social Media Officer Jasmine Connolly said: “Congratulations to all of our Twitter tree prize winners – it has been great to see so many people engaging with the tree and telling us what makes them #BUproud.

“The tree will be up until the New Year, so please do keep tweeting and changing the colours by sharing your thoughts on #BUcommunity, #BUsupport and #BUcourses.”