BlazeAid receives Commonwealth Points of Light award from the Queen
BlazeAid has received a prestigious award from the Queen for its work rebuilding farmers’ fences and lives after the summer’s devastating bushfires.
AUSTRALIAN diaster-aid charity BlazeAid, which is leading recovery efforts on farms across the east coast of Australia after the summer’s bushfires, has been awarded a prestigious international volunteering award by the Queen.
One volunteer from each Commonwealth country is awarded the Commonwealth Points of Light award each week, with BlazeAid founders and Victorian sheep farmers Kevin and Rhonda Butler accepting Australia’s for 2020.
The Commonwealth Points of Light awards celebrate inspirational acts of volunteering across the Commonwealth and aim to “inspire others to make their own contribution to tackling some of the greatest social challenges of our time”.
Mr and Mrs Butler founded BlazeAid after Victoria’s devastating Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, which started out of the couple’s wool shed and involved a few dozen neighbours rebuilding burnt fencing.
Ten years on, BlazeAid has helped more than 10,000 farmers, with about half of that in the last year alone.
Mr Butler said they’ve had about 100,000 volunteers on the frontline building fences and many more supporting behind the scenes cooking meals and donating equipment over the years.
While the charity focuses on rebuilding farmers’ fences after natural disaster to keep livestock in, which protects a farmer’s livelihood, Mr Butler says it’s the comradery that comes with the work which makes a world of difference and supports mental health in the bush.
“There’s neighbours that haven’t talked to each other in years that unite through BlazeAid,” he said.
“When we leave a community after working day in day out we want that community united for many years to come and that’s what BlazeAid does.”
Mr and Mrs Butler didn’t even know they were up for the award before receiving it and said they owe it to BlazeAid’s hardworking volunteers.
Mr Butler hopes the honour of receiving the award will help him get some new projects off the ground that will further support Australian rural communities.
British High Commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell will present the award to the Butlers in Canberra when it is safe do so, following the coronavirus pandemic.
“They both demonstrate incredible commitment to BlazeAid; the volunteers they have recruited and the communities they support,” Ms Treadell said.
“They are making a significant impact on the lives of those that benefit from BlazeAid’s work.”
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