As the NSW drought continued to worsen, Annemarie Arends began donating to charities that were offering help to farmers.
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But she wanted to do more, and began searching the internet.
She read that many farmers are facing enormous bills for buying fodder to hand-feed their stock, and trying to cut back on other expenses, including basics likes food and toiletries.
The Macquarie Fields woman then came across the Facebook page of Doing It For Our Farmers, a volunteer group that provides assistance to drought-affected growers, and decided she could help in the group’s collection and distribution of donated items.
Now, Mrs Arends makes a regular trip to Cootamundra in a car filled with donated items like food, cleaning products and clothes.
She gives the donations to members of the Cootamundra CWA branch for distribution to farmers who need them.
I just wanted to help, and I just want to keep helping.
- Annemarie Arends
Mrs Arends said she chose Cootamundra as the distribution point for her donations because she has family links to the town.
Her father Noel Manwaring grew up in the area.
“When I thought about where I wanted to help, Cootamundra seemed obvious because I have family there,” Mrs Arends said.
There are Doing It for Our Farmers projects across the state. In Mudgee, for example, volunteers carried out a collection just of toiletry items to give to rural families.
Mrs Arends pays all the costs associated with her trips to Cootamundra so that every donation she collects can go to where it is needed.
“I just wanted to help, and I just want to keep helping,” she said.
Mrs Arends said she has received a lot of support from her workmates and employees of nearby businesses, but is also keen to involve the wider community around her home in south-western Sydney.
Other donations come via the Doing it for Our Farmers Facebook page.
Mrs Arends stores all the donations in the home she shares with husband Barry before bagging it up for distribution.
October 7 has been pencilled in as the date for Mrs Arends’s next trip to Cootamundra.
“I like to be able to help out,” she said.
“I’d like more people in my community to see how just how bad the drought it, how dry everything is, and help out a bit.”
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