FIRES IN AUSTRALIA: HOW YOU CAN HELP

Photo of Bugong National Park after fire-Courtesy of Allison Lynch, administrator of Tapitallee/Budgong Community Facebook page

Kathy Morrison is an occasional  contributor to NNN who is spearheading an effort to help a family befriended by her son Max who are doing what they can to help during the current conflgaration being experienced down under.
For more photos and details please visit their Morrison Orchards fb page. 


Many people are concerned about the horrific bushfires in Australia that are ravaging the homes of thousands of people and millions upon millions of Australia's unique animals. Millions of acres of their human and animal habitat has been turned to ash. It is early in their “fire season” but already, well over 20 million acres have burned – an area larger than all of Ireland. They have a long season ahead of them and the number of deaths of both humans and animals is sure to rise. Though some areas saw a short respite from the intensity of the fires in the past few days, another round of dry, hot and windy weather is forecast for Friday and will, no doubt, whip up fires again in areas already still burning and spread it to areas yet unscathed. I know some of you have donated to causes already for their firefighting and rescue efforts. Thank you so very much.

We have a connection and point family if you are looking to give more or for the first time. Our son, Max, as many of you know studied, worked, and traveled in Australia for some time. Now in New Zealand, Max is far from the fires but has personal friends, the Edmistones, who live in Budgong, NSW, an area of the once lush Kangaroo Valley, that already has been greatly affected by the fires in the past few weeks. There, they operate a family winery and Bed and Breakfast. They were fortunate to have only lost one outbuilding at their place, but people in the surrounding community have not been as lucky. People have lost housing and property in the fires. The normally wildlife rich and lush woodlands surrounding their area have been decimated and the remaining animals are thirsty, hungry, and scared. No one is completely free from threat, as the fires continue to burn and the forecasted dry and windy weather may reignite some of these areas in the coming days. The Edminstones have generously opened up their B-n-B to those in need of housing and food. They are also creating feed/water stations to care for the wildlife and are purchasing approved feed pellets as well as fruits and other foods to help the helpless critters that are scared, hungry and without understanding of what is happening.

In an international crisis like this, I find myself troubled, trying to discern just which organization to give money - wondering how funds will be distributed and whether or not the organization has large overhead or huge CEO salaries. It is reassuring when I know ALL of my donated money will go directly to the cause I hope it to go - - no fees, no overhead, no administration or salaries taken out. This is an opportunity to give directly to a community of people and animals that will benefit directly and immediately from our money.

We are in the process of wiring money to them this week but would like to do more for the Budgong area by reaching out beyond ourselves. If any of you are looking for a way to donate directly to help the needs of the Australian people and animals, I am collecting funds to make another transfer to this family for them to use for aiding both people and animals in their immediate community. As locals, they will know where the needs are greatest and how the money might be best spent to ease the burden of both the people who are in need, and to aid the animals whose food source has been decimated. They will document the use of the money, showing how it was spent and keep us updated on how the donations were able to help local Aussies and animals in their area. I want to do the collection swiftly, as those in immediate need cannot wait for funds from larger scale fundraisers to be disbursed, in some cases, months from now. If you are interested in making a donation, I will be doing another one time wire transfer later this month. You may drop checks, money orders, and cash off at our farm or mail checks to us at 6128 S Maple Island Rd, Fremont, MI, any checks made out to John or Kathleen Morrison. I will finish collecting funds on January 30th and wire the money the following day, so if you are interested please make sure any donations will arrive before then.
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Thank you so much for your thoughts, prayers, and generosity toward the people and animal victims of Australia’s bushfires.

Kathy Morrison

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