Baptism of fire in vital bid to back rescuers
Blazes and drought have sparked a flood of “the little people” wanting to give as Nicole Blums pulls together all the threads of best intentions to gather donated goods and get them to frontline animal welfare groups
IT only takes a spark. As catastrophic firestorms blaze across our country, it is hard to believe that any little thing we do can help soothe the pain of our neighbours. The damage, the trauma, the need … it all seems too vast.
But Nicole Blums is proof that size does not matter – it’s simply a matter of scale. And we can all offer more than just thoughts and prayers.
The founder of The Rescue Collective, a nonprofit community organisation that seeks to support independent animal rescues and wildlife organisations, has suddenly found herself at the centre of a manmade miracle. Setting up strategic drop-off points across Queensland and New South Wales, the 39-year-old fulltime hospitality manager aims to enable every individual to make a difference in the rescue and care of wildlife victims from the bushfires.
“I think when these disasters happen, we all just feel like … what can we do? We want to help but we feel too little on our own to make a difference,” she says.
“Maybe all you have to offer is a packet of baby wipes, but how do you get that to the baby animals who need it? And how is it worth the time and effort of postage and transportation?
“But then I realised that if we could somehow gather all those little donations together, it would make something really huge.
“For people who have a lot to give, that’s fantastic, there are so many organisations to help.
“But we’re here to help coordinate the little donations for the little guys – the little specialised groups who don’t have a lot of manpower or money but who do crucial jobs. “We’ve linked up with them and are working with the Animal Rescue Freecycle group as well so that we can be the middle man between the little old lady who has that one item in her medicine cabinet that she wants to give and the organisation who needs it.
“We have dropoff points up and down Queensland and New South Wales and people can donate not just items or money but their time.
“Maybe someone is driving down to Sydney and they can take a load of goods to one of the rescue groups.
“We’re all about finding ways to make what people can afford to give, count.”
Now Nicole is looking to boost the Gold Coast’s own people power.
She says while she supports a number of rescue organisations based in the city, she is calling out for more local drop-off points.
And she is bracing for the response.
“The reaction of the public has just been mind-blowing. There have been responses from around the country but I have to say that Queenslanders are just so special,” says Nicole, who is based at Mount Gravatt.
“The Gold Coast has always been a base for animal lovers.
“Everything has just grown so quickly I’m playing catchup trying to make sure we can collect and collate all that has been donated.
“I’m averaging a few hours’ sleep each night – and working 50 hours per week.
“But I’ve always operated best under pressure.
“And it’s just a great feeling that together we’re all making a difference.”
Nicole says she created The Rescue Collective just last year, primarily to help organisations that work with domestic rescues.
She says just as she started working within droughtaffected areas, bushfires broke out in southeast Queensland and she realised it was an opportunity to step up her work.
It was literally a baptism of fire.
“I’ve worked within the rescue industry for a while and I’ve seen just how tough it is,” she says.
“Volunteers burn out fast and supplies are always running low.
“I saw that there was a gap to support these groups and these volunteers so they can do what they do best – rescue animals.
“It’s a matter of logistics and money and sorting donations, which is very unsexy and not easy, and that’s why there’s been a gap.
“So I thought, why not? I stepped in and started figuring out how I could do this.
“By the middle of this year we started working in drought-affected areas, rescuing horses that farmers couldn’t feed anymore, moving beyond the dog and cat rescues in normal urban and suburban areas.
“Just as we were stepping that up, the Sarabah fires broke out (near Canungra) and then Peregian (on the Sunshine Coast) and I just thought, maybe this is why I’m here.
“I posted a call-out for help and it just went crazy.
“That’s when I realised just how desperate we all are to really help. We just don’t always know how.”
Nicole says she is now literally reeling from the response after posting another call-out for bushfire donations.
In monetary terms alone, she says she was hoping to raise $5000.
But within 24 hours it had hit $130,000.
“I just can’t believe the selflessness I’ve seen,” she says.
“Our drop-off points are over-flowing.
“Delivery trucks have been so overwhelmed at the number of deliveries at my own house that they’ve started waiving the fees. Everyone wants to help.
“Within the donations themselves, people have
enclosed cards, kids have made drawings, there are handwritten notes and boxes of chocolates.
“They’re all messages of support and encouragement for the people on the frontlines doing the hard work. It’s not for us, it’s for us to pass on.
“After working with domestic rescues for so long, you do start to lose your faith in humanity, but this has just completely restored it.
“We will use every cent of this money to give grants to all of the organisations trying to help our animals.
“Anyone who knows groups that work with wildlife, tell them to hit our website and apply.
“We want to help as many groups as we can so that we can help all of the wildlife that we can.
“It’s such a refreshing, beautiful thing to be a part of. This is truly the spirit of Australia.”
Nicole says the true depth of destruction from the bushfires is yet to be measured.
She says most of the affected areas are still considered black zones, too hot for rescuers to enter.
“It’s only the start but animals are already pouring in,’’ she says.
“They’re injured, dehydrated and suffering from smoke inhalation. The rescue and wildlife hospitals can’t keep up, which is why we want to step up and support those carers and animals through the hell they face over the coming weeks and months.
“It’s important that we really triage the donations we’ve been given.
It’s such a beautiful thing. This is truly the spirit of Australia
“Over the next few weeks we’ll probably need more help than ever as the charities start calling out for what they need.
“So far, it’s really just the fast-movers we’ve seen – the birds and kangaroos, for example, that have ended up injured at someone’s property or have been hit by a car as they flee the area.
“It’s the slow-movers like koalas that have to wait for aid. They are the ones that really bear the brunt of the bushfires because they simply cannot move fast enough.
“It can be really traumatic for the rescuers going in. And we want to support them postrescue as well.”
Nicole says while people are always the priority, she believes that coming to the aid of animals is still critical.
She says helping the smallest of creatures speaks to the greatest part of the human spirit.
“I want to help people even more than animals, naturally, but I didn’t know how. And we have so many organisations to help with that,’’ she says.
“I think sometimes these problems seem so huge, it feels more manageable to start small.
“Helping people is the most important thing. But I just thought this was one small way I could make a difference to a big problem.
“And I think that saving animals speaks to the innocence in us. The animals have no one to protect them out there, and they are our national emblems. When we step up for our animals, we’re stepping up for Australia.”