Teacher and students surge into action to help bushfire affected wildlife
A Redlands teacher has recruited the help of students to sew more than 100 pouches for desperate wildlife carers in need of resources as they care for the animals affected by bushfires.
Redlands Coast
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A REDLANDS teacher has created a production line in her home to sew a staggering number of pouches for rescued wildlife affected by Australia’s devastating fires.
Sheldon College fashion and costume design teacher Michelle Olufson recruited the help of five students to make the pouches, which will be sent to wildlife carers is dire need of more resources as they look after thousands of fire affected animals.
Michelle and her students have spent hours over the past two weeks preparing the pouches, giving up their school holidays for the effort.
“When I found out there that the wildlife carers, caring for animals affected and displaced from the fires down south, I put a call out for anyone that could sew or knit as they were in desperate need of supplies.
“I knew I could help and I was sure that I knew some young ladies that would want to help as well, so I asked some students in the Sheldon College community if they wanted to help and within a minute the yeses came.
“Four of my fashion and costume design students all put their hand up to sew and another student whom I hadn’t work with before was very keen to knit up a storm with her mother.”
Ms Olufson said she had also reached out to the community for donations of fabric and was overwhelmed by the response.
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“Every day I’ve had people show up on my doorstep to donate fabric.
“Originally I throughout that I would have a couple of dozen. By the end of the week we should have 100 to send.
“I had spent over six hours a day co-ordinating what we need to sew, what supplies we needed … when the girls could get together for their working bees.
“I set up a space I used to use as a fashion studio for them to work in a production line format.
“The girls also took supplies home… in between the days we had organised.”
Ms Olufson and her team created 10 different pouch designs and sizes, with multiple inserts for each pouch, to cater for a range of wildlife and save carers trips to the washing machine.
“The tiny ones are for the sugar gliders,” she said.
She also rewrote instructions to simplify the production process and make pouch inserts easier for wildlife carers to insert.
The pouches will be delivered to a dedicated collection hub linked to a wildlife carer distribution network.
“These hubs are extremely important for distribution in the right way,” Ms Olufson said, explaining the network took orders from carers to ensure they received the right resources for their needs.
“Maybe I’m making a little bit of a difference,” she said.
“As a community, if we all just do a little bit, hopefully we can make a difference.”
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