Puppy love for fireys
Calendar fires up donations
FIREFIGHTERS who posed for this year’s charity calendar made an appearance at Grand Central yesterday while on their first regional tour. Animals featured prominently in the calendar and the team was joined by puppies and handlers from the Toowoomba branch of Safe Haven Animal Rescue. The combination proved to be a show-stopper and the Today Show performed a live cross prior to the centre opening. Coordinator of the 2019 Australian firefighters calendar Justin Bygrave said the group presented a $5000 cheque to the animal rescue earlier that day. “This visit is to highlight the need for Safe Haven Animal Rescue and to present a donation to them for their support of the calendar,” Mr Bygrave said. “Without the puppies and kittens throughout the calendars we wouldn’t have the lovely, caring images that you see here.” In Queensland, funds from
the calendars are donated to four charities; the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Mates4Mates, Australia Zoo and Safe Haven Animal Rescue.
Mr Bygrave said the reaction to the firefighters and puppies had been great.
“The kids love it and we’ve had a lot of people stop and look.
“These guys are everyday heroes, so to have some down time doing something fun for the community creates another level of awareness and engagement.”
Safe Haven foster coordinator Bec Lill said the calendar donation would help to provide medical care for the foster animals, many of which had birth defects.
“We take in a lot of special needs surrenders, some of which require treatments that are quite expensive.
“We can only do this if we have foster homes - the awareness and donations that come from the calendar are a real boost.”
The calendars will be on sale outside Kmart in Grand Central until January.
Photo: Nev Madsen