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Another Record Year for GFA

By Laura Chodowski|

Over 100,000 Victorians came to Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC) yesterday for the state’s 87th Good Friday Appeal (GFA), raising another record-breaking total of $18,043,251 to support The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.

MCEC Chief Executive, Peter King said GFA is a special highlight in the venue’s annual calendar of events and demonstrates MCEC’s ongoing commitment to supporting the local community.

“In our fifth year of hosting the iconic Channel 7 Telethon, Kids Day Out activities and evening Super Show, we continue to play a vital role in seamlessly delivering a large-scale event while helping to raise life-changing funds for sick kids.

“We consider ourselves part of the Good Friday Appeal family. It’s always a pleasure to work with the major supporters of the Appeal including: Channel 7, Herald and Weekly Times and 3AW.

“With our new expansion only three months away from opening, more space for MCEC means more space for Melbourne and the Good Friday Appeal. I look forward to watching the GFA continue to grow and flourish,” said Mr King.

This year MCEC’s chefs created an interactive Ice Cream-o-Rama for Kids Day Out, serving 4,500 house-made ice creams, for the Appeal.

MCEC’s team has spent the last twelve months planning for the event, with over 500 employees working across the week to ensure the Appeal was again a great success. Many MCEC staff also generously donated their time to volunteer on the day.

In the lead up to the event day, more than 300 hours of food preparation went into to feeding the tens of thousands of people across 11 food outlets.

The venue’s superior fibre-optic infrastructure was responsible for providing the signals for the Channel 7 broadcast and telethon, supporting the live broadcast stream, 250 telephones and another 350 computers simultaneously.

Since 1931 the Good Friday Appeal has contributed more than $345 million to The Royal Children's Hospital.