Blazeaid Volunteers Help Rebuild Lives!
Out of the ashes and widespread devastation caused by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria came an urgent need for fences to be rebuilt and communities restored. Victorian farmers in Kilmore East, Kevin and Rhonda Butler, were among those whose fences were burnt. Needing to quickly secure their 1,500 sheep, they sought assistance from family, friends, and local volunteers to help rebuild their fences. Within a week, the fences were completed – a task that would have taken them months to do on their own. Grateful for the assistance they received, Rhonda and Kevin decided to try to help a few others with their fencing … and thus, BlazeAid was born!
Since this time, thousands of long and short term volunteers have joined BlazeAid to help rebuild fences for bush fire survivors and flood victims. Responding to the recent Queensland floods, more than seventy volunteers from BlazeAid answered the call and setup camp at Toogoolawah in March. Under the watchful eye of Camp Co-ordinator Gary Lawrence, by the end of July, weekly teams averaging 9 volunteers removed 40.1km of damaged fencing and completed 27.2km of new fencing for properties (sixty in all) registered with the project. An amazing effort considering the average age of volunteers is 65 years!
Woodstock, in Tamborine, lost 3.5km of their fencing in the recent floods and so sought assistance from BlazeAid. CEO Ian Frame of Youth Enterprise Trust explained that “Woodstock is a 302 acre working farm, which allows youths to learn skills to gain employment. Our new prevention program, ‘Intent for Change’ will take young people on a 12 week journey at Woodstock so participants can navigate through biodiversity, improve their communicational skills, their dependence on tech, and become ‘job ready’.”
Ian said “It was a massive help having BlazeAid. The cattle have now regained their ability to access the eastern paddocks along Albert River, and we know ‘Peter the Bull’ will be keen to come down and meet the herd once again!” Thank you BlazeAid – “Not just rebuilding fences, but helping rebuild lives!”
By Kerri (with info retrieved from BlazeAid site and from meeting with volunteers & YET)