Emma Tovey is a passionate Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) supporter who organised a “100km in a day” swim with people in different cities across Australia, raising an incredible $11,500 for the ILF!
Emma was introduced to the ILF at one of our annual Trivia Nights, hosted by Brian Nankervis.
As a junior doctor, she is interested in eye health and the importance of ‘health literacy’ in all Communities, including First Nations Communities.
Health literacy is a form of literacy that refers to the ability for individuals to engage in their healthcare, ask questions, understand risks, provide consent, and attend follow-ups.
As a passionate advocate for literacy, Emma was inspired to engage with the ILF and raise awareness of ILF’s programs and services in remote Communities supporting literacy and First Languages.
When developing her fundraising strategy, Emma wanted to engage people in an efficient and impactful way.
Her mum helped her come up with the idea of the“100km in a day” swim, where Emma would encourage people to swim as far as they could to raise funds for the ILF. Her goal was to get the cumulative number of kilometres swam to 100km.
“The rules were simple. Between morning and midnight on the 16 March 2024 AEST, anyone, anywhere in the world could swim as many laps/distance as they could to help us achieve our target.”
“Around 50 people swam to raise funds for the ILF! We had people swimming in pools and oceans from all over Victoria from Quambatook to Sale, and even a swimmer in New York.”
In a place called Point Lonsdale in Victoria, a pair of swimmers called Georgie and Jordan were the key to the fundraiser’s success.
Georgie and Jordan were extremely passionate about the fundraiser and organised the largest group of swimmers - 16 people - swimming a combined 70km.
Thanks to these incredible efforts, Jordan swam over 4km and made the largest single financial donation.
Emma believes that it was one of the most rewarding things she has done.
Through this concentrated effort and the generosity of people around the world, the campaign raised $11,500 for the ILF, with a total of 130km swam in one day across 10 locations.
The ILF is extremely grateful to Emma who passionately advocated and shared the purpose of the ILF to inspire people around the world to give to this cause. This money allows us to gift thousands of books to children and families in some of the remotest parts of Australia.
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Written by Ella Schofield