They missed Christmas. They missed NYE. They missed school holidays with their children.
They have lost colleagues. They have worked bravely and tirelessly.
Let's thank them. Let's give what we can. Let's give them a...
Holiday for a Hero.
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Bushfires took hold of Australia, burning over 18.6 million hectares, taking 30 lives, incinerating and damaging more than 5900 buildings including 2683 homes and killed over a billion animals. When we hear of this devastation we don’t we don’t think of the people who are on the frontline of these fires, most of them volunteers, working bravely and tirelessly to stop the fires from more destruction. While putting their lives at risk they tragically lost colleagues, missed Christmas with their families, New Years Eve celebrations and school holidays with their children. They are incredible people.
From one generous thought, a new initiative was born. What started as two holiday rental manager/owners, wanting to say thanks to these brave firefighters & emergency services personnel by collecting accommodation donations from fellow managers & owners to offer these incredible people the holiday they missed out on, and most certainly deserve, Holiday for a Hero has grown into much more.
We are, as of today, at 104 donated stays. Many aspects of a great holiday are being donated including; holiday rental accommodation with 13 of them donated from New Zealand, Bali, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and the UK, specialist PTSD accommodation (offering support from service animals & therapies), yoga classes, stand up paddle boarding, a visit to an educational facility/ animal rescue centre, dolphin watching boat trips, tickets to local zoos and dinners.
Since tourism has ground to a halt in regional Australia, there is a much-needed push towards ‘staycations’, to inject normality and business back into the damaged towns. So as much as we know we have global support, we would like to keep the holidays at home.
This is a huge initiative. Progress is slow given there is only three of us, all with other businesses, but we are continuing with this, getting word out and making this happen.
We are also in regular contact with staff at the RFS who we will work closely with to ensure these holidays are distributed in a just and fair manner. With roughly 6000 firefighters & emergency services personnel involved, we need a lot of holidays! It would be great to give each and every one of them a holiday. Lets make this happen.
If you are involved in corporate sponsorship, please get in touch.
So please help, by donating anything holiday or fun related, and any cash donations will be converted to gift cards and distributed on the website. Please share the word.
If you have any questions, send us an email, and on behalf of Vera, Deborah & Andy, thank you for your donations.
Our new website will be live in a few weeks, so stay tuned.