The Forbes community are a pretty generous lot and several local businesses, with the aid of community members, were able to donate a large amount to residents in bushfire-affected towns on the South Coast.
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The donation drive was started by Janet Callaghan from Painted Daisies Gift Shoppe and Craig Dwyer from John Davis Motor Goup with the aims to help communities affected by fire.
The donation drive saw two BT-50 utes and two trailers filled with items including clothing and non-perishable goods taken to help the communities of Mogo and Batemans Bay.
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Ms Callaghan said she initially started the drive after being stuck in Milton over the holiday period when the roads were temporarily closed. She met a former Forbes resident living in Batemans Bay who lost everything in the fires.
After posting about the situation and asking for donations to help, Ms Callaghan said Mr Dwyer called to jump on board to help and it snowballed from there.
Mr Dwyer said the people of Forbes had been exceptionally great in helping the bushfire appeal, with donations of clothing, non-perishables and usage of trailers to help transport the items.
Many of the non-perishable grocery items were donated by Bernardi's customers after the store put out a large crate for the bushfire appeal.
Mr Dwyer said the people of Forbes were quite generous as the crate for donations at Bernardi's was soon overflowing.
Most of the donated items were dropped off at evacuation centres located at Mogo and Batema's Bay, on Saturday, January 18 by volunteers travelling from Forbes.
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Ms Callaghan said it was just unbelievable and the recipients at Mogo and Batemans Bay were overwhelmed and grateful for the support.
Mr Dwyer said they would like to thank community members for all of their support, as well as many local businesses including Bernardi's, MD Steel, Darren Cowan, Big W and The Wash.