by Cheryl Hardy, 16 March 2009
I lived in Flowerdale for more than 10 years from 1997 to the end of 2007. My girls were born there. They went to Kinglake West Primary School. As a babies and young children they spent days with a lovely family in Kinglake as part of the family day care program run by the local council.
Neva and Greg gave my girls a loving, secure environment to grow up in while my husband and I were working. Nothing was too much trouble. The girls love Neva almost as a second mother.
It was devastating for us as a family to see the beautiful mud brick home Neva and Greg had spent years building burn down on 7 February. Neva and Greg had no warning that the fire was in their area, they got out with their bathers on and nothing else, their house and both their cars were burned to the ground. Neva saved the next door neighbour’s baby who stopped breathing and lost her dog in the fire as a result. She got blisters inside her eye lids, inside her legs, her hair was singed and Greg’s face got singed and blistered.
My girls lost their old kindergarten and the childcare centre next door where my youngest daughter and some of the children who are no longer here used to play together. My eldest daughter has also has lost some of her old school friends.
Feeling quite helpless and not knowing what to do to try and help those affected by the devastation, I decided that the animals at the time seemed to be missing out on attention and needed help.
On the Thursday after the fires, I managed to raise more than $1200 from the staff from the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.
Along with that Bay FM and K Rock radio stations in Geelong, and 774 made announcements for donations for the animals.
Immediately, donations started to roll in of horse food, horse gear, dog and cat food, feed bowls, litter trays and so on. With the money raised, we managed to buy feed and horse supplies at cost price from Wallington Rural. Ivorsons feed store in Newcomb, donated ten bales of hay and we bought feed at reduced price.
We bought dog and cat bowls, kitty litter trays and collars etc at cost price from the $2 shops in the local area. Other people rolled up and put money in my hand - one lady from up the road bought all the horse lead ropes and head collars from Wallington Rural and gave them to me to take. Another lady while I was at the feed store asked what we were doing and then went and bought more horse stuff to give us on the spot.
Where did it all go?
After making phone calls on Friday to make sure we targeted the right stuff to the right areas, we delivered on Saturday the 14th March, all the small animal and a lot of the horse stuff to Animal Aid in Coldstream.
The rest we delivered to the stock feed depot in Kinglake West - being run by Leesa Burton. Leesa’s children attended Kinglake West Primary School along with my daughters. She has a heart of gold and runs that feed depot with an amazing band of volunteers.
Trailer load of supplies for Animal Aid and Kinglake West.
Since then, we have managed to organise a delivery of 250 bales of donated hay to the Kinglake West stock feed depot and yesterday we took another trailer load of donated chaff and horse feed as well.
Where to from here?
Leesa hopes to keep the Kinglake West stock feed depot open for at least another month. However, that is very dependent on being able to keep the donations rolling in. As the weeks roll by, donations are getting smaller and not as frequent. As fast as they are delivered, they are being distributed to the needy animals – both farm animals and wildlife alike.
Yesterday (Sunday) when we were at Kinglake, it was cold and spitting with rain. Until the fences are rebuilt and the grass and trees start to regenerate, the animals will be relying on your generous donations to survive.
If you would like help the animals of Kinglake – please feel free to contact Leesa Burton directly (0415 882001) or email us here and we will put you in contact with her.
Leesa Burton and Chris Smith at the Kinglake West Stockfeed depot - March 2009.
