Thank you to all the wonderful people who put together this lovely (and very full) pack of goodies for our crews. They are very grateful to all the volunteers at The Australian Outback Baby Project who had put this together for them. I managed to sneak a photo of one of our Pilots and Air Crewman as they opened the box this afternoon. The NETS Crew happened to be out on a mission when I arrived with their pack, but I have left a copy of your letter with them and I'm sure they will thoroughly enjoy their surprise care package. Thank you again!!
MESSAGE FROM CAREFLIGHT CREWS
Thank you to all the wonderful people who put together this lovely (and very full) pack of goodies for our crews. They are very grateful to all the volunteers at The Australian Outback Baby Project who had put this together for them. I managed to sneak a photo of one of our Pilots and Air Crewman as they opened the box this afternoon. The NETS Crew happened to be out on a mission when I arrived with their pack, but I have left a copy of your letter with them and I'm sure they will thoroughly enjoy their surprise care package. Thank you again!! I was sent a link by the head of health for the Northern Territory and I was just checking it out. We are sending packs into Gove Hospital so I checked out the info: "The East Arnhem Region is located in the far north of the Northern Territory, bounded by the Arafura Sea to the north and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east. The region covers the Arnhem Land Aboriginal Trust (excluding Bulman), an area of approximately 41,000 sq km. It encompasses the towns of Nhulunbuy (also the regional service centre of East Arnhem Land) on the Gove Peninsular, Alyangula on Groote Eylandt, the islands of Galiwin'ku and Milingimbi and the major Aboriginal communities on the main land." So all our packs will be going to these places too. Not only that but Alice Springs is also covered in the Northern territory and they have a special care ward for preemies and everything so once I get a few hundred baby packs under my belt put together; I will contact the Alice Springs Hospital to see if they would like our packs as well. We will have to send them in a fridge size box so perhaps around $1,000 to send. I will have to contact Cowra Freight and get a cost. I will also contact the RAAF later on to ask about taking all our baby packs to Darwin Airport in November. We also have Tennant Creek Hospital in the NT however, I have read over their info and their hospital is only a 20 bed post for emergencies like broken bones, snake bites and so forth. They fix up the patient and the RFDS takes them to Alice Springs or the Royal Darwin Hospital. They also have an 8 bed renal unit but that's no good to us. The families on the remote islands and clinics are Torres Strait Islanders and have a different colour flag but because they are also circa the Great Barrier Reef; the families love very bright tropical colours to wear too so we are looking for bright coloured baby garments but not fluro please. Also, the Alice Springs Aboriginals use the black, yellow and red flag so they prefer those colours and very earthy Autumn like colours. So to sum it up, we need alot of Aboriginal colour themed packs for the Northern Territory in Autumn colours because they are earthy; in black / red / yellow colours for Alice Springs especally; bright colours for Arnhem Land, Gove Peninsular, Darwin Hospital; tropical colours of the Great Barrier reef (no fluro) and colours of the Torres Strait Islander flag. Please see photos below. (Maree)
I'm currently putting together 100 tri-sets (hats, bootees and smock) for Careflight to send them next week and have 23 completed so far. I'm just waiting on more smocks and hat & bootee sets to arrive.
Once completed I will be doing 25 full baby sets for them as well to send a little later. Meanwhile, tomorrow I will start on the 100 x NSW Ambulance sets for their delivery asap. If anyone has made any Careflight or NSW smocks or hat / bootee sets for us; please send them as soon as you possibly can please. We would appreciate it and the donation immensely. To date we have no more deliveries for Dubbo Refuge until after July 1 as they have to close all donation deliveries until then to see if they get the lease again. I have two almost full boxes to keep aside for them until then. We have a care box almost completed for the wonderful ambulance officers; a box of clothes for the people of Lake Cargelligo who are in dire need; and a box of goodies almost completed for a family of 4 in dire need of help. No more items will go to Lake Cargelligo Ambulance to help peoplein their community until they call for them as their station is so small that they have no storage for our boxes of items.
This morning I slept in until 7.30am when the alarm went off but fell asleep again until two knocks woke me up. I thought it was someone knocking on the doors of the flats to the left.
I just heard more knocks now and went out to get the parcel off the parcel woman, only to find no parcel but 6 boxes and 3 very large. Five were from The Dandelion Support Network with clothes and items for us and LFE; the other I think is from Starmax Online (bags). The poor parcel woman threw her arms up in the air when she saw my shocked face and said "Not me! I only delivered one". lol She is a sweetheart! She even took something I had to post so I didn't have to get a taxi. The very last prize for the Careflight Competition last year. CAROL DICK watch your mail box ! A HUGE hug and a thank you to Maureen Clark and The Dandelion Support Network for their massive donations today. Lewis from LFE is off sick right now so I will call him Monday to pick his up. LFE is Lambing Flat Enterprises wh Plus a huge hug and thank you to Brian Jones and Georgina at Starmax Online who donated over 30 vacuum seal storage bags to our charity for the Dubbo Refuge and for the NSW Ambulance at Lake Cargelligo. I will need about 60 large bags in a month so I can start doing a stock count for our books. Today when I finally wade through all the boxes (incoming, outgoing) I have to photograph all of Maureen Hinch's gorgeous donations and complete some other projects as well. Tomorrow our committee has the very first official meeting as an incorporation which will be stressful but all good come second meeting. How amazing our world would be if we didn't have all these stupid laws and red tape to go through just to help other people! This is my veranda at 8.30am this morning! The boxes are way larger than they look in the photo. The 2 largest are about 3-4ft each. Maree A very gigantic thank you to :
Shan Manickam Managing Director Cross Docks Australia Pty Ltd For donating freight to us to deliver the Earlybirds Pty Ltd donations to us. Without their help, kindness and compassion we would never be able to accept this wonderful donation of clothes due to lack of funds. http://www.crossdocks.com.au/ Shortly I will be buying Australiana orientated print fabric to start our more Australian orientated packs. Australiana print NCIU smocks, embellishments of Australian related items such as small yellow pom pom wattle; felt eucalyptus leaves; Aboriginal sets; and a multi colour rainbow of colours that represent the colours of our soils, wild flowers, Great Barrier Reef and the centre of Australia. Fabrics with waratahs, bottle brush, farmers rounding up sheep, cattle dogs, Aboriginal prints, Australian birds and places etc. All will be incorporated for our packs. Not only that but a native Australian animal toy will be added as well. We just want to make packs more Aussie looking but we still accept all garments of all colours because they will fit in with what our aims are. This week has been a frenzied one to say the least! We received our incorporation papers; send out 3 large and one small box plus large baby's stroller to the Dubbo Refuge
and we will not be calling for or collecting items for them until the end of April now. A full box of clothes is ready to send out to Lake Cargelligo Ambulance to distribute to the very needy and their care box is almost complete. We have a half full box of goodies for the care box for Careflight NSW crew and at least 10 - 12 full baby packs done towards Goulburn Hospital's 50. Currently our supporters and especially our committee, are making NCIU smocks for Careflight and NSW Ambulance (400 in total). We have previously sent 200 to Careflight NT and 200 to Careflight NSW. A huge thank you goes out to Carol Dick of Knit 1 Chat 2 at Bathurst Library NSW; Helen Matthews of Tanilba Bay and Lemon Tree Passage CWA and all their ladies. They have thrown themselves into our charity as supporters wholeheartedly and helped us immensely with their beautiful garments and many many purchases. Also to Pamela Tatt of Knit4Charities and Karen and Peter Croke of Knitting for Brisbane's Needy and all their wonderful volunteers who also make us hundreds of gorgeous garments each year. Soon we will be doing 50 full sets for Goulburn Hospital maternity ward once their letter of intention arrives and then we will start on all the hundreds of full baby packs for the Northern Territory hospitals and Outback remote clinics that Careflight deliver to and pick up patients from. With the Arnhem Land sets 60% of them will be Aboriginal and 40% other. We will also be looking for various browns, wheaten, greens including olive green, ocre and earthy colours plus the black / red / yellow colours in baby items. Also any garments sewn can be in Aboriginal fabric print or Australian print fabric. We are still looking for peach, purple and mauve garments for matching up with some of our blankets and other items the same or similar colour for the Goulburn Hospital. We are also looking for grants etc that are suitable to apply for as well as financial donations. All garments and toys that go into NT hospitals have to be Ozone Washed to sterilize them. This costs $12 a load at Lambing Flat Enterprises and could cost up to $500 for them when done circa October. We also have to pay thousands out to have at least 6-8 large fridge sized boxes of the packs delivered to Darwin Airport in November. We will contact the military in a few months to see if they might do it free. However, by the time the letter goes all the way up the chain to get permission, it may be too late for us. |
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March 2015
AuthorMaree Agland - owner and coordinator of The Australian Outback Baby Project Inc. Categories
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