LIVE rural communities across the country, Merino is a champion for chipping-in and at the weekend, the locals and some visitors dug deep, once again, to raise vital funds for Blaze Aid.
The delicious smell of a barbecue, as well as a table laden with baked goods – all donated by locals – graced the driveway at the Merino Community Health Centre on Saturday, where the Merino Development Association hosted more than 30 hungry customers.
And thanks to the generosity of the association and those customers, more than $640 went into the kitty, to help Blaze Aid’s work.
The organisation was established in 2009 by Kevin and Rhonda Butler, after the Black Saturday bushfires.
They had approximately three kilometres of fencing burnt on their property, allowing hundreds of sheep to get out onto the roads, causing a traffic hazard and impeding fire trucks and other emergency service vehicles from continuing their response to the fires.
The repairs to their fences were expected to have taken the Butlers around three to four months, however, Kevin put an advert in the local paper requesting assistance.
He had a wonderful response from the community, with around 25 volunteers coming to help and the fences were rebuilt within a week.
It was Rhonda’s idea to pay the favour forward.
“We have had help, now let’s give our neighbours a hand too,” she said.
During the first year, volunteers worked out of the Butler’s shearing shed, their farm becoming somewhat of a tent city filled with people and their vans from all over the country (and the world).
The camp ran for 11 months, where they cleared 500km of burnt fences and rebuilt an additional 500km. BlazeAid has responded to natural disasters every year since 2009.
It costs around $5000 per week to run a basecamp; all money spent to feed volunteers three meals per day, maintain assets such as vehicles and replace tools and the spend goes back into the local community.
The bread is purchased from the local bakery, the groceries are bought from the local IGA or supermarket, fuel is acquired at the town service station.
Up to $500,000 per basecamp is pushed back into the community, where businesses often struggle from lack of tourism and visitors.