Later on in the year we will be sending large fridge size boxes up to Darwin Airport full of baby packs for Careflight to help distribute.
They will go to the
"The Gove Peninsula is on the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria within Arnhem Land, a vast tract of Aboriginal owned land on the Northern Territory coastline. The township of Nhulunbuy is the main commercial and service centre of the Peninsula and is 600 kilometres east of Darwin. Based on a 2004 NT Government Socio-Economic Snapshot, there is a population of 14,115 within the Gove Peninsula (East Arnhem Region), of which almost 64% are Indigenous people and a population of nearly 4,000 in Nhulunbuy, the majority being non-Indigenous people. Those people not living in Nhulunbuy live in surrounding communities and traditional homelands.In the five years to 2004, the population declined in Nhulunbuy and Groote Eylandt and increased in the non-urban areas" Around 60% of the population is Indigenous Australian and 40% other due to the mines etc. Here is a site for more information: http://www.goveonline.com/nhulunbuy Around June 2014 we will be looking for baby clothes for under 1lb, small, medium and large preemie and newborn in browns, coppers, eucalyptus greens, olive greens, ocres, reds and red / black / wattle yellow as well as lilacs / mauves, peaches, pale blues, pale pinks, spearmint greens, whites etc. For hat and bootee sets, gowns, blankets etc. We will also be looking for Indigenous Australian fabrics as well to make NCIU smocks. It is with great excitement that I tell you today that our incorporation has been passed and I'm just waiting on my ever wonderful auditor / book keeper Leanne Smith from Intentus to send the paper work to me.
A HUGE thank you from us to our wonderful patron Michael Pilbrow for sponsoring the $167 fee to apply. Without his help and Leanne's, we would be waiting a very long time for this to happen! A gigantic thank you to Cowra Freight owners and employees who work hard to get us our many boxes of donations to us for free from wonderful donors. They make a remarkable difference to our charity and our lives. As we are now incorporated, we can now do a follow up on emails to Estee Lauder in New York, MAC Cosmetics Australia, Swisse Australia who have all had interest in the past and now Australia Post. Not to mention Aldi & Coles who want to hear from us asap. We don't have major costs, we just need a lot of items to help people and it's the little things we need the most that become annoying when they run out quickly - ink, soap for our packs, postage of fabric around Australia to our smock makers (circa $24 a bag full); freight boxes, large clip lock bags; labels; follow on freight and freight to towns where Cowra Freight doesn't go. The trauma toys, the food for care boxes, the miscellaneous items we must pay for when that item isn't donated etc. Internet usage, phone calls intra state, many refuge items, fuel, postage, black pens for the boxes, wide sticky tape and most other insignificant items comes out of our own pockets. We can't claim it on tax but we are ok with that because we love this charity so much! Maree G'Day Everyone!
Today it is 40 degrees/C. here so not much being done. Currently we are working on a lot of things including: * More Careflight sets *40 x full baby sets for Careflight * Large care box for Careflight NSW * NSW Ambulance sets (hats, bootees, smocks) * Collecting more toys for NSW Ambulance * Finishing off the refuge list to send to them (last box for 4 months) * Purchasing jeans and clothes for Lake Cargelligo Ambulance to distribute. * Small care box for Lake Cargelligo Ambulance. * 50 x full baby sets for Goulburn Hospital* * 4 Indigenous full baby packs for Young Hospital * 2000 packs for Darwin Hospital / Careflight NT / Katherine Hospital / Outback Remote clinic / Tiwi Islands. * Finding more trauma toys for Fire Brigades and a small few for police*. * Getting donations for professional money boxes for shops and pamphlets, business cards. * Promoting the two nappy donation businesses who help us out so we can get more nappies soon. Last night we had 2 boxes of clothes for babies (donated by The Dandelion Network) to send for a one off to The Salvation Army in Young NSW. Plus 2 boxes of same said clothes and a box of hygiene products for Dubbo Refuge which are all now on their way to their destinations today.
I have just rang the Salvos and they said they appreciate the gift immensely from both the Dandelion Network and The Australian Outback Baby Project. We already know the Dubbo Refuge absolutely LOVES us for all that we, as a community of supporters; do for them. We are like guardian angels to the refuge because they struggle even more than us with far less help and support. Meanwhile! We have more Careflight sets to do; I have many baby sets to put together when the heat goes away plus do two large tea-chest boxes for them for care boxes as there is so many who work there crew wise. We have 200 Ambulance sets to get out to Orange NSW Ambulance. PLUS a care box of great magnitude for 120 Careflight members in the NT at the end of April. Some NSW Ambulance sets (newborn) to make for Lake Cargelligo Ambulance and a box of jeans and clothes as well for them to distribute. Probably another 20 trauma toys by then as well as the care box for the officers. We also have 50 baby sets to make up and send to Goulburn Hospital when Michael finds out if they are closing the maternity ward or not. PLUS we have to collect as many toys as we can get our hands on because I am sure that we will get huge orders from Ambulance stations in between all this. The Dandelion Network will also be sending boxes of baby clothes down to us on occasion for Lambing Flat Enterprises to sell for a few dollars in their shop to keep it going for the disabled. Cowra Freight delivers them free to us and Lewis the manager picks them up from me. I will buy all the jeans we need for $2 from them as I also buy (privately) kids doonas and blankets off them for our local pound ranger. I adopted Michael about 20 years ago from the pound and he is the best male friend I have ever had in my life! I honestly can't believe we help so many people !!!!!! Careflight love our sets (hat, bootees and NCIU smocks) so much they have now ordered even more plus we have to send them 50 full baby sets as well as two tea chest boxes of care box goodies. So we need hats and bootees sets in royal blue and wattle yellow please and for the sewers we need warm NCIU smocks (pattern on our site) in royal blue and yellow. Inside MUST be fleece or flannelette, minky or anything warm. They can have prints on them.
NSW Ambulance in Lake Cargelligo have also ordered full newborn sets, they need a heap of soft cuddly trauma toys and are also looking for near new and or new jeans and adult clothes they can distribute to farmers and people who desperately need help in the town. Things are so bad there that farmers have had to foster their children out so they will get meals. We will help in every way possible as well as support their wonderful team with a care box. Clothes must be in excellent condition! We also need small, medium, large preemie and newborn hat and bootee sets in red and white only as well as the smocks. These are for NSW Ambulance in Orange and Lake Cargelligo. We desperately need non perishable, long life items for our care boxes that will go to Lake Cargelligo Ambulance and two very large boxes to Careflight NSW. Healthy snacks (no nuts please), rice snacks, energy bars etc. Bulk buy, inexpensive health food bars can be found at www.groceryrun.com.au and no matter how heavy the order is, the largest amount you will pay in full for postage is $9.99. Our next delivery to the Dubbo Refuge is in a week then the next in 3-4 months. We always welcome yarn donations and especially feathered yarn as our bear extraordinaire Jess Lane has been making some stunning bears for us of late. Our call for royal blue and yellow Careflight sets (hat, bootees, NCIU smock) is ongoing throught the year as are our red and white sets (hat, bootees, NCIU smock.
We are currently working on 200 sets for NSW Ambulance in red and white if anyone would like to help asap please? If you can sew but can't knit, we have a wonderful pattern we can give you for free to do red and white smocks (any pattern but no other colours. Can be all red though and white flannel or fleece inside). Or if you can knit and or crochet you are welcome to make the hats and bootees for us in any pattern, even really fun character ones (No Disney please). We need hats and bootee sets in small, medium, large preemie and newborn. Currently we are also searching for healthy snacks and food for two care packs - one to go to Careflight NSW and one to go to Careflight NT for the NETS crews that help the Bush Babies. I have started packing about 20 sets for hospital babies at Goulburn but we still have to get confirmation on the hospital maternity unit as we have been told it is closing and the unit transferred to Canberra. We are on the final leg of this month's collection for the Dubbo Refuge as per their list we have supplied. It will be sent off in 2-3 weeks. Tuesday the Cowra Guardian will be doing an interview with us at the Sportsman's Expresso Bar in the Cowra Coles Complex. The bar owners want to do a toy fundraiser and anyone wishing to donate a soft toy, gets a free small coffee. The newspaper would only agree on giving us publicity if I showed them all the packs I make up for hospitals, Ambulance, Careflight etc. I will not be doing a care box up or refuge box for them to photograph, only baby sets. (Maree) GREAT NEWS JUST IN !
I have just spoken to a wonderful long time artist friend of mine (Tony) and he is going to create for us THE mos beautiful new logo for our charity for when we are incorporated any day now. Not only that but it will be submitted to the OLGR and Department of Fair Trading. It will be our official everything and far better than the current awful one we started with. It was donated by an unprofessional person who turned out to be someone despicable so, we are having a new one completely made by a huge supporter, wonderful kind, compassionate artist who will create it with love. Tony works with his digital art on major movies like The Pirates of the Carribean where as my cousin Stephen works on Happy Feet, 300, 28 Weeks Later, Knowing, Australia, The Lego Movie, Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole etc. If I can catch up with my cousin Phil, where ever he may be hiding in a rain forest these days; he might even do a documentary on our charity.....although I will be missing from it as I never take credit due to my religious voluntary work. PRIORITIES FOR JANUARY 2014
1. Finish Careflight sets and send along with a care box. 2. Make and pack up 200 NSW Ambulance sets (hat, bootees, smock) to send out to Orange NSW Ambulance. 3. Send a care pack to Bathurst NSW Fire Brigade (Townies). 4. Start bagging 50 sets of full baby packs for Goulburn Hospital (no nurse care pack) 5. Send 5 full baby packs to Broken Hill NSW hospital + nurses care pack for 14 nurses. 6. Contact Urana NSW Hospital for top up number + send nurses care box. 7. Find a wholesaler who is willing to donate groceries for nurses care packs (average cost $200 a box out of my pension). |
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March 2015
AuthorMaree Agland - owner and coordinator of The Australian Outback Baby Project Inc. Categories
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