When a western Sydney teenager won a radio competition he knew he was going to donate the money to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. What he didn’t know was that the donation would more than triple.
He may have just graduated high school, but 18-year-old Samuel Adam has already shown compassion well beyond his years when he decided to donate his well-earned $1,000 to make Christmas a little bit brighter for sick kids.
It all came about when Samuel tuned into 2DayFM and heard about Jingle for a Hero – a segment where hosts Jimmy and Nath do a jingle for a business and give them $1,000.
He nominated his family’s business Davids Auto Repairs and managed to win, with Samuel telling his father George Adam that he didn’t want the money for himself – he wanted it to be donated to Westmead Children’s Hospital.
“We’ve been going to [the Children’s Hospital at Westmead] for a while for a lot of our stuff in the family and I know that they have a lot of kids there and I know they’re going to be staying over Christmas and I just thought I’d give back,” Samuel told Parra News.
Following the win, George, Samuel and his mother Dorothy posted about the donation on their social media accounts.
Shortly after that the donation more than tripled, with companies not just from western Sydney but from around the country agreeing to match it.
“We went online on our own socials and basically put it out there that [Samuel] wanted to donate it and then a customer of ours saw it and turned around and said ‘you know what? That’s a great thing, I’m going to match it’ and it just kicked off from there,” Dorothy said.
“We had another 25 companies comes on board and match it… It’s just been amazing, the impact of everybody just wanting to help.”
A whopping $25,000 has now been raised.
Samuel said it’s been great to see how the community has come together to support a good cause.
“It feels pretty good that I’m able to start something massive from something small,” he said.
“It was great to see that everyone is good-hearted, especially around this time of year, and especially with the economy and everyone struggling.
“It’s just amazing to see that a lot of businesses could find it in their hearts to spare that much money.”
To find out more about the fundraiser visit http://www.gofundme.com/f/all-for-the-hero-that-got-a-jingle.
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.