Aiming to raise over $100,000 for sick kids

PHIL' 2019

Last year Arc’s philanthropy initiative, Phil’, raised over $162,000 for the Child Life and Music Therapy at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, led by UNSW student Courtney Cross. This year Liam Jarvis (Master of Public Policy and Governance student) has taken over as the 2019 Phil’ Coordinator and is looking forward to a big year of ‘fun-draising’.

Since Phil’s inception in 2016, Liam has already helped fundraise two of its three years running. In 2017, he was the president of the UNSW Theatrical Society, NUTS, and organised four teams from the society to participate in Phil’s 24-hr Fun-A-Thon where they competed in various challenges for 24 hours and together raised over $10,000. 

Liam personally raised over $2000, much due to a bet he made. He told his friends, family and fellow students that the person who would help him raise the most money would get to design his new tattoo. 

“I really wanted to engage as many as I could to help raise money for the work that the Child Life and Music Therapy team does for sick children and their families and thought the best way to get people interested and involved would be to come up with something crazy. Turned out everyone loved it; even my mom was supportive!” 

Two of Liam’s friends managed to pull together $700 between the two of them, and a couple of weeks later Liam tattooed his friend’s Jacqui design on his thigh. The tattoo shows two friends holding hands with the words “Liam + Jacqui best friends 4 ever” and has become a fond memory for him today. 

Liam also competed in the Fun-A-Thon last year as the captain of the NUTS team, despite what he looks back on as a very busy year. When he got the opportunity to become the coordinator of this year’s Phil’ campaign, there was no doubt that he wanted to make it his priority for the year. 

“Every day on my way to university I walk past the hospital where the sick children we raise money for stay. I have met the Child Life and Music Therapy team that works tirelessly to help the kids to deal with the scary situations they go through, and I have seen how the UNSW community have come together to help. This year I want to help raise a lot of money, because I know how much every dollar count”. 

Last year’s coordinator Courtney, set a goal of raising $100,000 at the start of the year but raised another $62,000 by the end of it. Liam has set the same goal for this year but is also hoping to raise a whole lot more. 

“Courtney and last year’s team did a fantastic job at organising both smaller and bigger events throughout the year that really engaged students and staff and was rewarded by raising a lot more money than anticipated. I hope we can achieve the same this year”. 

To kickstart the year, he is planning to do ‘Dares for Donations’ with not only snakes and dunk tanks as seen during last year’s Fun-A-Thon, but is also playing around with the idea of cockroach eating and off campus dares, including sky diving. 

Read more about Phil’ and how you can get involved here