Given the fires have been happening since October 2019 throughout the country, our hearts go out to all impacted by the fires and those fighting the fires.
I have no doubt many members have been helping out in different areas, but I thought I would highlight just a few plants that I know first hand have being doing their part to help.
High Country Truss & Frames
David & Elizabeth van der Plaat from High Country Truss & Frames have been helping transport feed to the NSW South Coast area.
They have transported hay on their trucks, picking hay up from Junee, delivering to Cobargo and Nelligen near Bateman’s Bay to name but a few locations.
Cooma has become a distribution Centre for Fodder on the South Coast so David and Elizabeth had the trucks and thought this would be a great way to contribute to the efforts along with the army who have also set up in Cooma.
Alpine Truss Chips in $15k
Steve Kelly of the Wangaratta Chronicle ran a story on Friday 17th January on the work being done by the North East Rotary clubs and the amazing donation from Alpine Truss which I have extracted information from below:
Photo Top Right (L-R): District 9790 Rotarians Anne Reid (Alexandra), Marg Crips (Wodonga Central), Geoff Dinning (Appin Park) and Brian Peters (District Governor) with George Prothero of Alpine Truss
Alpine Truss Wangaratta has donated $15,000 to assist with bushfire recovery in North East Victoria, some of which will go towards stationery packs to help children get back to school.
Basic necessities such as the back to school packs for children will take a load of parents’ minds with the education year about to start.
Through the Rotary Cub of Appin Park Wangaratta and the Rotary District 9790 – a bushfire relief project that has support of other service clubs – Alpine Truss managing director George Prothero made the donation and encourages other local businesses to give what they can to help people who are doing it tough.
A lot of the support will go to the hardest hit areas at Corryong and surrounding towns, aiding people who have been impacted to varying degrees.
“I saw in the news how bad these people are doing it, and even before that with the drought, so I had in mind I was going to do something anyway” Mr Prothero said.
“Hopefully it might start some bigger donations around the area. I wanted to make the donation through Rotary to make sure it does go to the people who really need it”.
Alpine Truss is also donating all of its trucks to cart hay up to drought and fire-affected areas.
See the story on Worthy Fundraising Options on FTMA News for information on how you can donate to this worthy cause.
Dahlsens
The team at Gippsland born Dahlsens has felt this devastation hard with so many of its East Gippsland, North Victorian and southern New South Wales team members and customers experiencing the terror of the fires first hand. The business and its team members have pooled their resources with councils, recovery organisations, farmers and like-minded truck owners to make any difference they could.
When the fires struck, truckloads upon truckloads of generous relief donations, gifted by strangers far and wide, started making their way down the line to East Gippsland. The East Gippsland Council desperately needed a place to hold the volumes of emergency supplies. So, Dahlsens arranged a team of many to clear out their entire former retail shed at Dalmahoy Street, Bairnsdale to create floor space for water, toiletries, food, pet food, clothing and more. That shed of emergency supplies has been emptied time and time again. They’ve pulled their delivery trucks out of rotation wherever they could to drop food into impacted communities as the roads have opened. Their trucks have carted hay from western Victoria and southern NSW primarily into Bairnsdale and Corryong to farmers in desperate need.
