A few days ago, I received a link to radio programme, recorded and produced by a student at Cardiff Uni. Reuben Sneller met with a team of students from the uni who called themselves the ‘Red Frogs’. The following is a short article composed from the transcription of Reuben’s programme. You can hear the whole thing here and find Reuben’s website.
“We head down to ‘The Lash’ at Cardiff SU, set up a water stall and give out free water to anyone who wants it, all night, stay there ‘til it closes at 2am, then pack up and go home.” Student from the Red Frogs team
Every Wednesday and Saturday night, a team of students go to Cardiff uni’s student union to hand out water and chat to other students. They call themselves the ‘Red Frogs’. “It’s quite enjoyable, sometimes it’s pretty tiring but on the whole it’s really rewarding. People seem to really appreciate a nice cold glass of water and a chat” says one of the Red Frogs team. Chris Lawrence is a student worker at Woodville Baptist Church. “In Cardiff we love students, we’re there simply to love people, to serve people and to connect with people.” Red Frogs takes it’s name from a type of sweet - Red Frogs lolipops. Since it’s launch, in Australia, in 1997, it’s become hugely popular and is found all year round across the country. Red frogs first arrived in the UK in the summer of 1999 when a team started in Sheffield. Chris continues, “Red frogs has been in Cardiff since September 2010. We had a great time in freshers week doing a couple of events there. ‘Megalash', I think, was our first night that we did with over 6000 students in the club. That was just a great launch night for us, and we were just able to serve in that environment with a whole bunch of freshers. It was the first time out for some of them and to see how frightened some of them look [sic]. It was great to be able to welcome them into Cardiff, welcome them into the students union, and give them a welcome to the environment and a listening ear to listen how things were for them.”
“You’ve helped a lot of people’s hangovers.” Cardiff student
Chris explains how the Red Frogs team operates: “When we serve people, the way we work in Cardiff is that we work with the student union of Cardiff university. We responded to their call really. We’re there on Wednesday in ‘The Lash’ and Saturday nights at ‘Come play’, at the moment. We’re there, we have a hydration station or a water bar, whatever you want to call it, we proactively give out water, we proactively are seeking to help manage the night almost, doing something, bridging the gap that night staff or bar staff can’t do. We’re almost a connection point between the two where we look out for those who are struggling on the night, perhaps they’ve had too much to drink or are intoxicated in another way and we’re there as a listening ear as well. You’d be surprised (or maybe not surprised) by the number of people who come and tell us their whole life stories and the issues and the problems that are going on right now. We’re there to simply be those listening ears. To give advice where we feel that we can.”
Is there a hidden motive?
“We’re there simply to be loving in our actions, loving in our words, loving in our listening.” says Chris. “And if somebody is going to ask me a question about what we believe, we’d be rude not to be honest and we’re going to be honest. We’re going to be open and our agenda is simply to love people and serve people in a loving way."
“I guess I can say, from drinking water, I’ve remembered more nights. I mean, basically I mean, I’ve had better nights from drinking the water because I remember the people I meet and it’s a great opportunity to meet other people as well. Red frogs is an amazing thing because when I wander out of the union, pi%$ed as a fart, I can get a glass of water go home to bed and wake up in the morning feeling cracking.” Cardiff student
Why does Chris think that they’ve been received so well? “We’ve been received really openly, it’s surprising how well we’ve been received. I’ve spoken to a number of people, managers of the student union for instance, who I know were very skeptical of us at first, because they’re so used to organisations like us coming in promising big and delivering short. We made sure that we promise short and deliver long. It’s really important that we do that. If our actions aren’t backing up our words then, I think, we wouldn’t have been received very well. But they say that we have backed up everything, and then some.”
“I think it’s a great idea. When people are drunk and they need a bit of water to rehydrate themselves. It definitely sobers you up after a night out. Especially after singing TakeThat all night, you need a bit of water.” Cardiff student
One worry is that students actually drink more because the know they have the Red Frogs to fall back on. Chris says that he doesn’t think this is the case. “I think that our presence in a club is a positive one. If anything, from the response I’ve heard from all the guys on club nights and when we talk to them there, they feel really challenged actually, that they can go out and drink less and still have fun because you’ve got a whole bunch of students who are serving students who are demonstrating that you can have a good night without getting completely wasted. And if anything, my question would be - are there going to be more people that are getting less drunk if weren’t there? I’d be incredibly surprised because of the culture that already exists."
“Ye it was a good night, the end of it was busy, as usual, which was good. We handed out all these Mars bars to the staff, behind the bar and the bouncers and security staff, so I think they really appreciated that. They’re kind of a group that don’t really have much thanks, so it’s good to give them a bit of a reward.” Student from the Red Frogs team
Cardiff uni students union Financial and Commercial Officer talked about how Red Frogs has been going and how it wasn’t a straight forward decision to let them into the night: “When Red Frogs approached me at the beginning of the year, there was a Christian society that already gave water out outside at the end of a nightclub night, but the idea of Red Frogs was something quite different, because they gave out water whilst people were inside the nightclub [..] I thought it was a great idea, for the social responsibility, making sure that students, if they had had too many drinks, that they had some water before they leave. So I think it’s really good in that regard and it’s something that we’ve been really happy with this year. I think it’s definitely made a difference to the night. I’ve noticed myself, when I’ve been on nightclub nights, that students are engaging with it and taking water. With water readily available, people can just grab it and go, rather than queuing at the bar, so they do that and get water rather than thinking “Ah no, I’m not going to get that, I’ll just carry on drinking. Something that’s really good about Red Frogs is that, even though it’s kind of a Christian group in a way, it’s not overtly Christian. It’s just people giving out water as far as everyone else concerned, there’s no messages on glasses, you’re not preached to, the only way they’ll start talking to you is if you talk to them. That’s something that definitely influenced the decision and made it definitely one that I’m happy with.”
Where do they go from here?
“We’re in talks” says Cardiff uni’s FCO. “Along with doing the two nightclub nights a week, they’re also doing some of our bigger events like ‘Drink the Bar Dry’ and Varsity and things like that, so I think that’s an avenue we’re going to go down. Other events as well, doing things that help students, outside of the club nights: doing things like coffee during exam times, easter egg hunt around easter; fun things that engage students in Cardiff and help them through times that can be slightly more stressful than other times of year.”
With positive words coming from all sides, it looks like the Red Frogs could be here to stay. Chris Lawrence closes by revealing his aims for the future: “We’ve got other clubs that are interested in having us as a part of their club night as well, that are student based, that are outside of the immediate students union, which is really exciting and it can only go from strength to strength. We’ve already been asked to see if we can set up something similar in Swansea and Red Frogs UK is growing. It’s exciting, it’s in a whole bunch of different cities all with the same heart to simply to serve students lovingly and to enhance student life."
