Sarah Cox, Brad Cole, Stacey Cox and Jayden Sheridan are leading a community-driven donation drive for local volunteer firefighters.
Photo by
Billie Davern
Now, it’s a community-driven initiative supporting those who’ve put their lives on the line, but it all began with sandwiches.
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It started after Stacey Cox from Two Broker Girls attended a community meeting about the Longwood fire on Friday, January 9.
“I saw the firies there, and I spoke to Kylie (Comte), being the captain of the Seymour brigade,” she said.
“I said, ‘What do you need from us, the community? This sounds as though it's going to mean big days for you guys.’”
When the captain requested sandwiches for her crew, Stacey and her husband obliged, creating lunch packs for the volunteers.
Before long, they were setting up a hub for donations to the local CFA volunteers.
“And it honestly just went from there,” she said.
“We got a call the next morning to ask for more, so I got hold of Alex from Griff-Fit to see if we could use them as a drop-off point, thinking it would be just bits and pieces — small things that people could afford to donate.
“And then, the front room just got absolutely smashed.”
From there, the donation drive moved to The Neighbourhood after Gnarly Neighbours’ Brad Cole went into Griff-Fit to donate and saw that the immense amount of community contributions was too much to be housed by the independent gym.
Brad said, after “it got bigger and bigger again – too big for us”, the collection point moved to the green shed in King’s Park.
Each day, call-outs for various items, from clothes to camp gear, were issued across Gnarly Neighbours’ social media.
And, as it does, the community delivered.
The collection point was relocated twice after the community delivered an overwhelming amount of supplies.
Photo by
Billie Davern
“We were overwhelmed by the quick response of the community. We could put up a call-out right now for a chainsaw, or a UHF, or a vacuum, or a freezer, and we would have it straight away,” Sarah Cox of Two Broker Girls said.
“We are so passionate about helping our friends that are fighting fires, and we were surprised that there was no immediate government support in the early days of the fire.
“We were more than happy to step up and help our local CFA volunteers, and are so proud to be part of a community that is willing to help so quickly.”
Brad added that it was all about providing the vital immediate response that had not already been seen.
“There’s lots of relief for families going forward, but there’s nothing now to help our firefighters, CFA volunteers; there’s nothing for them right now,” he said.
With the success of the community-led initiative, the team behind it is now in talks to set up a committee to enact an immediate response to disaster recovery.
“There needs to be an initial response ... So, setting up a way that the community can be on the ground, as they are, is one of the most crucial things because we can’t rely on other people,” Gnarly Neighbours chief executive Jayden Sheridan said.
“Once the dust settles, it’s going to look like setting up a committee for crisis response.”
The team wants to thank donors from the local community, as well as Kilmartins Pharmacy, Cox Solid Civil, Griff-Fit, Bunnings Seymour, Charlie Webb - Vic Plumbing and Gas, Baba's Kitchen, Peppercorn Hotel Yea, Tenex, Nestlé Broadford, Seymour K-hub, Seymour Coles and Woolies, Seymour Hardware Group, Troweled Plaster, Seymour United Church, GMCU, Costco Epping, Reece Plumbing, Seymour Pet Stock, North Central Hire and Gouge Laundry Services.
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