Jim Carrick predicts that Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team will beat the University of Kansas to win the championship game of the NCAA Tournament.

Carrick showed his March Madness bracket at the beginning of his Phanstiel Lecture on Tuesday afternoon to explain that philanthropy is all about giving back to something you are passionate about. And for Carrick, that something is SU.

As part of SU’s Philanthropy Week, Carrick spoke to a crowd of more than 100 members of the SU community on Tuesday in the Schine Student Center to encourage them to give back to the university. Philanthropy Week events started on Monday and will continue until Thursday.

Carrick, a Class of 1998 SU alumnus, serves on the boards for The Jim and Juli Boeheim Foundation and SU men’s basketball’s Hardwood Club. In addition to SU, Carrick said he is especially passionate about donating to help support people with cancer, as his wife Peggy is a two-time cancer survivor.

He said giving back is more than just writing a check or making a donation. Instead, Carrick said people should get more involved with the organizations to which they are donating. For example, Carrick said he has run several races with his family and friends to raise money for cancer research and treatment.

At the start of the Phanstiel Lecture, SU Chancellor Kent Syverud mentioned five examples of philanthropy at SU, including the anonymous $1 million donation to SU’s science departments last spring and JPMorgan Chase’s $13.8 million donation to support SU’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF).

Syverud said the reason he thinks SU is a “great and thriving place” is due to all of these examples of philanthropy and “selfless giving back.”

“It’s a kind of testimony of belief in the future of all things orange,” Syverud said.

Philanthropy Week was established by SU Trustee and Class of 1971 SU alumnus Howie Phanstiel and his wife Louise in 2010 after the couple made a $20 million donation to the university to create the Phanstiel Scholars program. The program provides financial resources for middle-class students to attend SU, according to the Philanthropy Week website.

During his lecture, Carrick told the audience about some of the people who have influenced his life, particularly in regard to philanthropy. The first was his mother, who despite not having a lot of money when Carrick was growing up, still managed to find ways to give back to people, he said. One of the ways she did that was by taking in one of Carrick’s teammates on his high school football team and putting him through college because his father was abusive.

Carrick also mentioned IBM as an influencer because he said that when he worked there he saw firsthand how giving back affects people’s lives.

Immediately following the Phanstiel Lecture, the 2016 winners of the Orange Circle Awards were announced. OttoTHON, a student-run philanthropic organization, was chosen for its efforts in raising more than $152,000 for Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital.

Tumay Tunur, a postdoctoral associate in the exercise science department at SU’s School of Education, was chosen for her leadership with the Moving Through Possibilities program, which supports people with Parkinson’s disease by teaching them ballet.

The final Orange Circle Award recipient was Matt Zeller, a Class of 2006 SU alumnus who co-founded the No One Left Behind program to help protect military translators overseas and provide them with travel visas so that they and their families can reach safety.

Published on March 22, 2016 at 10:59 pm

Contact Sara: [email protected] | @saramswann