Charity partner a lifesaver all year round

The City of Sydney will partner with one of Australia's largest volunteer-based community organisations to help raise funds and awareness of water safety in New South Wales.

The City has teamed up with Surf Life Saving New South Wales (SLSNSW) for its Sydney Lunar Festival 2019. The partnership will enable the charity to promote its safety mission through various activities and donation collections during the festival.

"We're delighted to partner with Surf Life Saving New South Wales and support the work this important charity and their volunteers do in saving lives," Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.

"Sydney Lunar Festival is an expansion of the City of Sydney's Chinese New Year celebrations - the largest celebration of the Lunar New Year outside of Asia.

"More than 1.3 million people attended the event in 2018 and more than two billion people were reached through Australian and international media about the festival, so this is a perfect opportunity to promote Surf Life Saving NSW's significant contribution to Sydney - saving lives."

The festival falls during the peak season for Surf Life Saving NSW. The City is exploring engagement opportunities for the charity, including a pop-up beach in the city.

As the pre-eminent body for water safety in NSW with a network of 129 clubs and more than 75,000 volunteer members, the primary goal of SLSNSW is to achieve zero avoidable deaths and injuries on NSW beaches. The services it provides include beach patrols, community education, surf sports, and first aid training.

During the 2017/18 patrol season, Surf Life Saving members volunteered more than 663,000 hours patrolling the NSW coastline, saved 4,377 lives, performed 142,766 preventative actions and administered 11,957 first aid treatments.

Steven Pearce, CEO of Surf Life Saving NSW said: "We are thrilled to be offered this opportunity from the City of Sydney and look forward to being an integral part of the 2019 event.

"Surf Life Saving protects all beachgoers during the patrol season and being the official charity partner of the festival will help reinforce our safety messages to always swim between the flags."

For the past 15 years, the City's events have helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a variety of causes. These include fighting children's cancer, music education for children, treating people with visual impairment, helping children with disability, state emergency services, animal protection, alleviating global poverty and boosting humanitarian aid.

For media inquiries or images, contact Elaine Kelly, Senior Media Advisor. Phone mobile 0477 362 550 or email [email protected]

For interviews with Lord Mayor Clover Moore, please contact Anusha Muller. Phone 0408 494 545 or email [email protected]