Australia, How can we help?”

“Australia, How can we help?”

January 17 Update***

We are only $8350 away from our $10000 goal.  Let’s try and reach the goal by the end of January!.

To date you have contributed $1500 to Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors, and $150 to the New South Wales Fire Services - Thank you!

All orders placed this week have gone to the post office, and are on there way to you :)

Wildlife rescuer Simon Adamczyk is seen with a koala rescued at a burning forest near Cape Borda on Kangaroo Island, southwest of Adelaide, Australia, on Jan. 7, 2020.

Credit:

AAP Image/David Mariuz/via Reuters

Like most of you, the immense devastation in New South Wales, Kangaroo Island, and other parts of Australia are hard to comprehend.  The loss of millions of animals, and the hectares upon hectares of habitat.  Entire species on the brink of extinction, because of fires.  The human toll, families displaced, loved ones lost, and firefighters risking their lives to help protect whatever and whomever they can.  There are no words for the humanitarian and environmental crisis that has erupted during this years fire season.  As a proud Canadian who has spent a large part of my life in rural or northern communities, and a proud daughter of someone in the Ministry of Natural Resources, the threat of forest fires were always real, but never like this, never this giant, never this overwhelming.  From the other side of the world, my heart is screaming.  I’ve spent several days soul searching and trying to find some way that we could help, how I can help, how as a human race we can help.

When we started our sheep farm, my first promise to myself, was that I was now the steward of these 120 acres, I will care for it, love it, nurture it, make it fruitful, and devote the time and love required to do those things.  My grandfather instilled the concept of being a “steward of our land” in me at a young age, and maybe this is in some way can help all of us be stewards to more than our own land, but to the planet.

I spent some time away, I walked along a beach until I figured out what small contribution I could make to crisis we all face, whether its our fields, our weather, our oceans, or our forests.  This is what I came up with.

What we can do as individuals?

I know we’ve all seen posts on social media about huge contributions being made to the disaster relief in Australia, but I also recognize that this isn’t something we all can do, or maybe don’t want to do, but we can do so many things that don’t cost a penny.  I don’t have the answers, I just believe that as a human, it is up to us to pay it forward, and do the best we can.

We can join Climate Change Organizations in our local communities.

We can give our time to reforesting efforts in our local communities.

We can make personal commitments to doing better for this planet, that provides us with the food we eat, the water we drink, the lakeside where we watch the waves roll up to our toes.  Back in November or December I made a personal commitment to plant 250000 trees before I died.  (Obviously I can’t possibly plant that many on my farm, or physically accommodate that, but there are scout groups, girl guides, and local conservation areas that do, so between those things I can get it done)

We can give our time to craft circles that are making items that are being requested for wildlife in Australia, our weekly Stitch and Bitch is devoting the month of January to making these items, you can read more about that later in the article.

We can research what we read, we can dig deeper.

We can contact our government officials, and make our votes count.

We can share information, subscribe to climate change organizations, and animal welfare organizations social media to spread information.

We can take a walk outside in nature, stop for a moment, breathe the air, listen to the whispers between the pines, listen to the waves rocking gently against a dock, and appreciate it’s very impressive existence.

I believe as individuals we can make small steps, or giant steps, but as a group we can make huge strides, we can leave this amazing, bountiful, incredible planet better, and start to heal it.

What we can do as a small local business?

We have designed a line of Tangled Poets called the “Australian Collection”,

available here,

https://www.aberdeenswool.ca

There are 12 colour ways, all representing a species that are most vulnerable, and so important to the vital ecosystem. 

We will contribute $5 per skein from the “Australian Collection” to Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors.  There is a great article describing what the Irwin’s are doing to help on the frontlines.  The link to the article is here:

https://azwh.blackbaud-sites.com/ 

We will produce 2000 of these skeins, if the fires are still burning when these are sold out, we will assess if we can produce more.  These are ready to ship, no pre orders required, and will ship in 2-3 business days from date of ordering).  

We’ve also created a boxed set of all 12 colours, each box also has a special limited edition extra skein, called “Ocean of Change” and for each box set we will contribute $80 (we can only produce 100 of these boxed sets) These are ready to ship, no pre orders required, and will ship in 2-3 business days from date of ordering)

From this point on, all Pickle Jars Kits that are sold we will contribute $5 per Pickle Jar to NSW Rural Fire Service in Support for firefighter families, who’ve lost there loves.  We have 60 ready to ship!

You can read more about this fund at: https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/general-news/featured/support-for-firefighter-families

How will you know where we are contributing to, and how much?  Obviously, transparency is essential, each day, we will post daily totals, and each Friday, we will post copies of the donation receipt to our social media and on our website. 

We are committed to making it possible for locals who wish to help by devoting our weekly Stitch and Bitch (Thursday’s 6-9 pm) to make requested items, in order to ensure that this is inclusive for everyone, we will have baskets of yarn that you can use (at no cost).  As a yarn shop, we are not able to provide sewing fabric, but if you’d like to join us, and you sew, please feel free to do so.

Links to patterns are available here: 

https://cheezburger.com/10205189/crafters-unite-patterns-needed-for-australia-animal-rescue-complete-guide

We are committed to providing all shipping costs to get made items to the appropriate locations.  We will be doing a shipment every Monday, and we will make a post each Monday evening, with the tally of what has been shipped, and if there are items that are more in need at the time.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this, if you have any questions, or suggestions, please feel free to send me an email:  heather@aberdeenswool.ca

If you’ve made it this far into the article, please share it on your social media, the more we talk about it, the more we can make happen.

With a broken heart and gratitude

Heather