T H E B AROSSA MAG | 37
Giving back
to your
community
WORDS BY HEIDI HELBIG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALICIA LÜDI-SCHUTZ
It was in the blackened shadows of the Pinery Bushfire that
Foundation Barossa truly came of age.
As the community struggled to make sense of the catastrophic
bushfire, the Pinery disaster relief appeal emerged as a tangible
way to make a difference.
People opened their hearts in the most remarkable way,
donating more than $40,000, most of it within a month of the
blaze.
“It’s just human need – people saw what was happening
and wanted to help but didn’t know how,” says Kylie Piper,
Foundation Barossa’s executive officer.
“It was really important that we could act quickly and give
people something they could do when they felt helpless.
“It’s one of the things community foundations are known for.
People within the community can give back to people they
know, families they know, schools they know that have been
impacted, by giving to an organisation they know and trust.
“It’s a really heartfelt reaction when people donate to a disaster
appeal.”
Two years later, as Foundation Barossa winds up the appeal,
community donations have funded a diverse range of projects,
from sensory gardens to school vouchers.
It’s impossible to know how many people have been touched
and what the impact has been, but undeniably it has been far-
reaching.
“A lot of the projects we funded were about gardens; for
example the Landscape Greening Project attracted volunteers
from Owen Uniting Church physically going door to door to
every family impacted by the fire to give them a $100 voucher
to get their garden growing again,” said Kylie.
“It wasn’t just about making a beautiful garden, it was about
people being able to see something beyond the black and the
dirt, small ways of moving away from the fire.
“It also gave people impacted by the fires a friendly face to talk
to.
“Projects like that, you wouldn’t know how many people they
helped.”
Another inspirational community resilience project involved
Freeling Primary School students designing and creating a
mosaic to thank their community.
While the school wasn’t harmed by the bushfire, students were
quarantined inside the school until the danger had passed.
“Because the fire was so close, all the students were shut in –