helping the bushfire victims

There have been several appeals in the last couple of days for goods (clothes, toiletries, toys for kids, etc) to help the bushfire victims and the massive response has been heartening. A local radio station here organised some trucks to head to Victoria and they received so many donations they couldn't fit them all in. A couple of emergency centres in Victoria have similarly had to request that people stop bring donations of goods and instead focus on blood and money donations to the Red Cross.

Nothing is going to make this a good situation, but it's still amazing to see the immediate and compassionate response. I'm not usually one to put in a good word for big business (only $1 donated from each Big Mac on McHappy Day, McD's? And how much profit do you make out of the remainder of the price as a result?) however I want to applaud Coles supermarkets. Coles is not only providing water, food and other necessities, but this Friday ALL of their profits for the day are being donated to the Bushfire Appeal. They are not only giving up the day's profit, but of course will also lose some sales from other days that week because people are waiting to shop on the Friday. Yeah, it's just one day, but they didn't have to do it and it's a LOT of money.

If you're in Australia I hope you can find a way to contribute. I'm donating to the Red Cross. I also need to find out where the blood bus is today and hopefully donate blood, too. The last couple of times I had the chance to donate blood I was taking antibiotics and couldn't, but luckily this time I'm not even on hayfever medication. Good timing.