NewsCIVL reaches fundraiser goal and looks to Chilliwack

CIVL reaches fundraiser goal and looks to Chilliwack

This article was published on September 4, 2013 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By Katherine Gibson (Contributor) – Email

Print Edition: September 4, 2013

While you were lounging at the beach and soaking in your days of academic freedom this summer, CIVL Radio was knee-deep in fundraising.

An intensive week-long CIVL initiative (aptly named “Amplify Your Community”) ran from July 12 to 19. Since this was the first time this type of fundraiser has been done at UFV, its success was uncertain.

Aaron Levy, CIVL station manager, described the lowest goal they were reaching for.

“We had a lowball goal of $5000 that if we reached [it] we were going to just upgrade our technical equipment.”

Instead the fundraiser managed to bring in $12,500 for the station.

With the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC), as well as collecting funds from auctioning off T-shirts and the legendary CIVL bike, putting on Gala Events and facilitating a drive-in movie, CIVL was able not only to meet its initial goal, but easily surpass it.

Beyond student involvement, this fundraiser also gave CIVL the opportunity to reach out to the local community. Collectively donating $5000 in product such as posters and prizes, community businesses and individuals showed their support for the station – a fact for which Levy is very grateful.

“The community relationships that CIVL has are relationships that many campus stations in  other cities and at other universities do not have,” he explained. “We have great connections and we use them to help provide for students. We realize that your community is your community, and that’s something that we try to embrace as much as possible.”

The success of this event has given CIVL the funds to revamp its studio equipment, and also to begin the process of bringing CIVL broadcasts out to Chilliwack, a matter of great importance to the station.

“Right now, we can serve Abbotsford, Mission, Aldergrove, and parts of Langley with FM radio, but we can’t serve Chilliwack, which is where one of the main UFV campuses is located,” Levy explained. “We need to put effort towards broadcasting into Chilliwack because it’s a huge benefit to us –  it shows students that we are respecting what they want, and that we’re not ignoring members of our community “

Broadcasting into Chilliwack will take a lot of time and money to successfully achieve.

“There is engineering research that is needed, and that’s only one piece of the puzzle,” Levy explained. “CIVL was licensed to broadcast on FM radio in Abbotsford for four years before we ever did, because we had to put together the research and the money in order to make it happen.”

CIVL’s need for continued financial support is apparent. However, Levy is aware that students do not have a lot of extra money to support the station. CIVL’s failure to pass two different referendums, one asking to add two and the other four dollars to student tuition fees, speaks to this.

“Students look at saying yes to referendums as a permanent expense that they will have to spend every semester,” he noted. “Students pay a lot of tuition and we understand that; we are very aware that they’re not a bottomless well of money.”

Students interested in getting involved with CIVL or learning more about the programming that is available can go to civl.ca or visit the station in C-building on the Abbotsford campus.

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