Diggers Rest CFA members were delighted by the community’s generosity in providing water and food as they fought fires in Diggers Rest and surrounding areas in recent days.
Lieutenant Steve Hynes said crews returned from a fire in Davis Road on January 17 to find bottled water, chips, biscuits and lollies waiting for them.
“It blew us away,’’ he said. ‘‘We rely on that sort of thing to keep the boys rehydrated.
“Water and Gatorade are the first things we pack on the truck, but with a lot of [government] cutbacks that’s been limited, so we’re very thankful.”
The surprise donation of goods followed a fund-raising drive by Sunbury resident Janine Meyer and her daughters Shelby and Jemma.
“We were sitting at home looking at the Sunbury Region Community Facebook page when the town had fires going in Racecourse Road and there were a lot of people who couldn’t do anything,” Ms Meyer said.
“We called Safeway to see if we could set up [a stall] in front of their store and collect donations from people shopping to give to the Sunbury firefighters. They said yes.”
Ms Meyer also posted her donation drive idea on the Sunbury Facebook page and it became a hit.
“We had $1200 of donations in the first five hours, and they’re still coming in,” she said last Wednesday. “One $100 donation came from a guy in Queensland.”
With more money raised than expected, the donations were shared among six CFA stations: Diggers Rest, Bulla, Wildwood, Clarkefield and two at Sunbury, .
Grateful Diggers Rest members invited Ms Meyer and her daughters to the station last week to say thanks, and now one of her daughters plans to become a junior firefighter.
