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Originally published by Financial Standard, Thursday, 18 July 2024

The Financial Industry Community Aid Program (FICAP) will raise funds for Life Ed, the charity behind Healthy Harold, at its annual RockStar event next week.

FICAP has selected Life Ed as its new charity partner in 2024, providing funding for the Healthy Harold Scholarship fund and the Festivals of Health.

Life Ed teaches children and young people the health, safety and wellbeing skills required to make positive choices. It does this primarily through mobile learning centres, pop-up classrooms, in-class delivery, and via virtual and online lessons.

“Life Ed’s giraffe mascot, Healthy Harold is an Australian icon. Alongside Life Ed, Healthy Harold has been visiting schools for 40 years to provide high quality health and wellbeing education,” FICAP charity selection lead Ashleigh Cullen said.

Also commenting, Life Ed chief executive Jonathon Peatfield said: “We really value partners who support us to reach schools who are doing it tough. FICAP’s funding will support the most vulnerable communities who normally wouldn’t be able to have a Healthy Harold visit.”

As with last year, FICAP will also be raising funds for Fighting Chance and Feel the Magic.

This year marks the 18th year of fundraising by FICAP, which recently surpassed the $3 million milestone.

“Every dollar raised has provided vital resources and programs that contribute to a brighter future for young Australians,” FICAP chair Marnie McLaren said.

“Reaching $3 million is a testament to the incredible spirit of giving within the financial services industry and we couldn’t be more grateful to our sponsors for their unwavering support.”

The 2024 RockStar event takes place Thursday, July 25 at The Beresford in Surry Hills. The event sees financial services industry professionals sing their hearts out as they vie for the coveted RockStar trophy.

For the first time, the ultimate winner of the event will be gifted a business class ticket to Auckland, New Zealand to take part in a similar, televised event.

Last year, more than 350 turned out for the event, with PIMCO head of funds business group, APAC ex Japan and local head of operations Scott Delaney claiming victory as overall winner with his rendition of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis.

This year’s platinum sponsors for the event are BlackRock and Challenger. The gold sponsors are Alexander Funds, AZ NGA, BT, Colonial First State, HUB24, Ironbark Asset Management, KPMG, Macquarie, Magellan, Maple-Brown Abbott, Montgomery, NMG Consulting, Pedal/Perpetual, PIMCO, Profusion, Schroders, SQM Research, and Thinktank.

Financial Standard is the official media partner of FICAP.