Children’s hospital Good Friday fundraiser still holds its appeal down the generations

From humble beginnings, the Good Friday appeal for the Melbourne Children’s Hospital has turned 90.

Good Friday Appeal chairman and Herald & Weekly Times chairman Penny Fowler. Picture: Alex Coppel

Melburnians have a well-founded reputation for flocking to any sporting event, but 20,000 people turning up to watch two teams of jockeys battling it out on the football field sounds a little far-fetched.

Indeed it happened, albeit 90 years ago, as part of the first fundraising effort to save the then overcrowded and under-resourced Melbourne Children’s Hospital.

That event back in 1931, which has since morphed into the annual Good Friday Appeal, was organised after a group of journalists from The Sporting Globe, part of the Herald & Weekly Times, approached Sir Keith Murdoch with the idea of a fundraising sports carnival. Not only did the jockeys, one team from the Flemington racecourse and the other from Caulfield, battle it out in front of a huge crowd, so too did two teams of World War I veterans, one from the north side of the Yarra, the other from the south.

The carnival, which followed a Cobb & Co procession through the streets of Melbourne, raised £427 for the ailing hospital.

After that initial success, Sir Keith gave the go-ahead for his Sporting Globe reporters to hold a charity sporting carnival annually, and on Good Friday in 1942 he started to broadcast an appeal on the company’s radio station 3DB.

The Children’s Hospital benefited by £8310 that day, after more than 20,000 calls were made to the station. Channel 7 then took up the mantle with the advent of television, broadcasting what had become the Good Friday Appeal live every year since 1957, with the Herald & Weekly Times continuing to drive the charity. The generosity of Victorians has been unfailing since.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

Donations to the Children’s Hospital, which was renamed the Royal Children’s Hospital in 1963, have totalled $381m since those jockeys battled it out 90 years ago. “The Good Friday Appeal has been part of the fabric of HWT for 90 years,” Good Friday Appeal chairman and Herald & Weekly Times chairman Penny Fowler says.

“It’s also been part of the fabric of my family. The family has always wanted to do as much as they can to help the appeal. For my grandmother (Dame Elisabeth Murdoch), my mother (former Herald & Weekly Times chairman Janet Calvert-Jones) and myself that was about getting out and seeing the kids and supporting that grassroots giving that all Victorians do so well.”

The family connections are more than historical. Beyond Fowler’s continued involvement, some of the funds raised at the Good Friday Appeal are provided to the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where Sarah Murdoch is co-chair.

All funds raised by the Good Friday Appeal are devoted to research, new equipment and technology, patient and family-centred care programs and supporting staff through education and scholarships. Good Friday Appeal executive director Rebecca Cowan says 90 years of the community giving to the kids is an “incredible milestone”.

“There is no greater feeling than seeing everyone across Victoria unite, particularly after a challenging year, to raise much-needed funds for the world-class Royal Children’s Hospital,” Cowan says.

Fowler says the key to the appeal’s ongoing success is its deep connection to the Victorian community. “It’s all about that grassroots fundraising, everyone giving $5 or $10 or whatever they can,” she says. “There is great corporate support, but what really sets the appeal apart is everybody wanting to support our sick children.”

COVID-19 has had its inevitable impact on the Good Friday Appeal activities, particularly the annual Run for the Kids fun run. This year, the same as last, it will be a virtual run with people encouraged to walk or run for 90 minutes wherever they can on Good Friday or the days leading up to it.

Janet Calvert-Jones, right.

Last year at the height of the lockdown the appeal still managed to raise $9.7m, and the Andrews government came in with an additional $8.5m to break the fundraising record.

This year the appeal includes the Channel 7 Telethon starting at midday and the annual Easter Friday “Kick for the Kids” AFL match between the Western Bulldogs and North Melbourne at 4pm.

For the first time the NRL is involved, with the game between the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos on Friday night another fundraising event. Seven’s coverage continues after the footy with celebrities such as Guy Sebastian joining AFL stars including Matthew Richardson. The appeal will also be launched on the Royal Children’s Hospital Facebook page at 9am on Easter Friday, along with raffle tickets which are for sale online.

Fowler says while the pandemic will make it challenging to beat last year’s record of $18.2m, she is hopeful enough Victorians will find a way to dig deep.

“When my grandfather got involved in this 90 years ago the Children’s Hospital was in real danger of shutting down. Today it’s a world-class facility, saving lives and doing groundbreaking work. And that is down to our great Victorian community.”