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Australia’s Bushfire Relief: A Guide to How You Can Help

By Lindsey Fella Berry 

More 9,000 miles away, Australia wildfires continue to burn, causing catastrophic damage. Each day, first responders, firefighters, volunteers and organizations are working together to help victims of the bushfires.   

Going on record, as one of the most intense fires the country has ever seen.

Over one billion animals are believed to have lost their lives, 6.3 million acres of land burned, thousands of families displaced and homes destroyed, and  24 people have been killed, including ten firefighters.

How can we help Australia?

Currently, the most effective way you can help and support bushfire relief efforts is to make a monetary donation. Here are a list of organizations working to help and links to how you can support their efforts.

Community and Fire Victims  

• The St. Vincent de Paul Society Provides emergency housing support to bushfire victims. St’Vincnet’s Vinnies Bushfire Appeal is aimed specifically to help displaced families. Donate Here.
• Australian Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Funds recovery programs, emergency assistance in affected communities, disaster preparation, protection and volunteer training. Donate Here.
• The Salvation Army Supports communities affected by the fires, with emergency service teams responding to loss of life and property. Donate Here.
• Foodbank is a hunger relief charity in Australia. For every $1 donate, they can provide $6 worth of supplies to communities affected by the fires. Donate Here.
• Blaze Aid Works with families and individuals in rural Australia after natural disasters  Donate Here. 
• Save the Children Supports children and parents with recovery, aiding in assistance to support trauma from loss of community. Donate Here. 
• First Nations Communities Supports aide to cover expenses for culturally sensitive, specific and direct support to those communities in need.  Donate Here. 
• Givit Serves as a third party to provide donations whether goods or monetary.  Donate Here. 
• Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal Long term support for communities affected by the fire. Donate Here.

Conservation, Wildlife & Habitat Support 

• WIRES Rescues and rehabilitates wildlife rescue in Australia. Donate Here.
• The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)  Conservation efforts to save wildlife affected by Australian wildfires and restore land for future habitats. Donate here.
• Port Macquarie Koala Hospital Rescues and treats injured koalas. Donate Here. 
• RSPCA NSW Supports measures and efforts to help wildlife, pets, and livestock endangered by the fires. Donate Here.
• One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Vermont dedicated to long-term restoration. $1 can plant a tree. Donate Here. 
• Erwin Family Australia Zoo  Donate Here. 
• Vets Beyond Borders Provides life-saving medical care to animals affected by the Australia bushfires. Donate here.
• Zoos Victoria Bushfire Emergency Wildlife Fund which funds emergency vet assistance.  Donate Here.
• Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. protect the koalas in the region. Donate Here.
• Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park Seeking of donations for vet assistance and animal food, specifically koala milk. Donate Here. 

First Responders and Firefighters 

• Victoria Country Fire Authority (CFA)  Supports firefighters and their efforts in Victoria.  
• New South Wales SW Rural Fire Service  Supports firefighters and their efforts in New South Wales. 
• The Country Fire Service in South Australia  Supports firefighters and their efforts in South Australia. 
• Rural Fire Brigades Association  Supports firefighters and their efforts in the State of Queensland. 

Get involved, support and educate.

#ThankAFirefighter 

• #ThankAFirefighter Youth platform for posting photos of thank you cards and or artwork dedicated to showing gratitude to firefighters and first responders and expressing appreciation for their bravery. Learn more ThankAFirefigher.com

Social Media Support 

• #AuthorsForFireys Authors are auctioning off signed books and writing services, donating funds towards fire relief.
• #FightFireWithaFiver Comedian Nick Kroll and Aussie actor Joel Edgerton are encouraging donations to the NSW RFS of $5.
• #Bushfires #NSW Simply by following this hashtag, you can become aware of what is happening down under, and support those affected by fire devastation. 

Current News NSW Bushfires

Photo Credit Top Photo: AU NEWS

Wild In The Classroom Spotlight: Helping Ninjas

For starters, you can help by planting native flowers!

Learning about pollinators and how you can help them is fun! We need pollinators to help our food grow! Learn more!

Popcorn and Pollinators

How do I plant a seed?

Watch Educational Videos For Kids

Hi my name is Ashley Mae and I am a Helping Ninja!

Today I learned about the Trick Or Trash zero waste boxes that give kids like me a chance to recycle our candy wrappers after Halloween!

We decorated boxes! (That me!)

It is better to recycle our candy wrappers because it can help the bees. Pollution can hurt bees habbitats. Did you know that if you look at the store now while we have bees there will be tons of fruits, vegetables, and dairy items but without the bees there would be none of that. Another reason is because it can help save the sea life environment. For example there would be no turtles nothing. Those are the reasons why we need to recycle our candy wrappers.

We decorated a box to collect candy wrappers. Once it is full we will transfer into the Rubicon Global and Terra Cycle Boxes. We are going to collect candy wrappers at home. Once I collect them ill take Them to school and put them in the box we made.

This is one of the pictures I made.

These are the students in the Helping Ninja club creating signs to teach other kids about recycling candy wrappers!

I am nine years old. I like helping the Earth. I like being a Helping Ninja!

Graduation was an exciting time because I finally achieved what I had been working towards for the past five years: my Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology.

After my work this summer at Dauphin Island, I didn’t really know what was going to happen.

But after that, all I did was play the waiting game while we anticipated hearing back from dozens of jobs that we had applied for. Refreshing my email, spamming the job boards for the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums), double-checking to make sure I had applied for the ones I wanted, etc. This was my life for weeks. I had finally settled on staying in Auburn for a while longer to continue the job search when my boyfriend landed an engineering position at a firm in Tampa, Florida. This was a complete shock to both of us! I had also applied for a couple of positions at the Florida Aquarium, but I had yet to hear back from them about an interview.

To my surprise, I got an interview for a position that was going to take place two days after we moved to Tampa! I had less than two weeks to find an apartment, set up utilities and internet, move all of our stuff out of the storage unit into a U-Haul, and drive a total of ten hours down to Tampa. That the most stressful time of my life, so far. I thought school was hard, but I had to grow up faster than I ever thought I had to.

Fortunately, I was offered the position with the Florida Aquarium and am currently employed!

I am a “Guest Engagement Facilitator,” which is a fancy title for a type of informal educator for the guests who visit the aquarium. My official position is actually at the TECO (Tampa Electric Company) Manatee Viewing Center (MVC) about thirty minutes south of the aquarium at Apollo Beach where I will be educating guests about the stingrays in the touch pool that the Florida Aquarium has partnered with TECO to provide. The stingrays are actually the official mascots of the Tampa Bay Rays, the major league baseball team across the bay in St. Petersburg, Florida. They need a place to reside during the off-season, so the Florida Aquarium watches over them at the MVC from October to April.

In the mean time before I start working there November 1^st, I have been helping out with education at the touch pools at the main Aquarium and learning from the veterans and developing my own style of teaching and spreading awareness to guests about the importance of the animals in our care.

It’s been amazing to inspire and educate children and adults on the importance of conservation of these animals that I get to work with.

I recently got to participate in my first event at the Aquarium called “Guppyween,” which is the yearly Halloween event. I got to dress up in costume at work, which was an absolute blast. It makes me wish I could dress like that every day.

The amazing thing about the Florida Aquarium is all of the conservation work that is being done with corals at the Florida Keys. If you haven’t seen on the news, just recently in August a breakthrough was made with Atlantic coral through the efforts of biologists at the Aquarium’s Center for Conservation in Apollo Beach.

The Aquarium was the first to successfully induce spawning of Atlantic corals in a laboratory, which is extremely important for the success of the species in the wild. The Aquarium also grows and replants corals out in the Florida Keys to help build up populations in reefs in the wild. All of the efforts of the Florida Aquarium are for the education and conservation of our oceans, and I am so blessed to be a part of their mission. To see more about what the Florida Aquarium does, please visit their website at https://www.flaquarium.org/conservation.

Ill be writing soon about the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach. I can’t wait to get down there to start working in a new environment with new animals! Stay tuned!