Woman's emotional plea for help to keep sheep from starving has inspiring result
A young woman has posted an emotional plea to help save starving sheep in drought-stricken regions of rural NSW.
Kylee Arandale, from Lismore, set up a GoFundMe page called Help Stop Them Starving after her mum told her a story that had reduced her to tears.
Her brother, a tree-lopper, had attended a farm at Nyngan in central NSW, when a herd of sheep ran towards his truck, thinking he had food for them.
The paddocks were bone dry and the sheep rail thin, she says in a tearful video posted to the GoFundMe page.
Unable to get the image of starving sheep out of her mind, Ms Arandale decided she needed to do something.
“I have access to a truck so I have a way to get food to them,” she wrote on her GoFundMe page. “I just want to raise as much as I can to feed as many as I can.”
Her original goal was to raise $5000 to buy seven tonnes of sheep nuts, which would feed approximately 7500 sheep.
But donations have already far exceeded that, with the ultimate $14,300 target already exceeded.
“We actually ended up with about $30,000, because on top of the GoFundMe page we had family and friends making personal donations, so we’ve been able to do several runs out to Gunnedah,” she told Yahoo7.
Kylee’s friend, Josh Oliver, sorted out the logistics – the feed, the hay and the trucks – and there have already been three trips to Gunnedah, one of the most drought-affected areas.
Apart from taking 860 kilograms of dog food, four semi-trailers full of hay, and 20 tonnes’ worth of sheep nuts, the Gunnedah runs have provided farmers doing it tough with cash, water, gift vouchers, clothing – anything that could help out.
“People in Lismore were sending out thousands of dollars’ worth of boots and shirts – so many people, if they couldn’t donate actual cash, were giving us whatever they could.”
Kylee said the farmers were overwhelmed by the generosity of the enterprise.
“On one of his trips Josh made a connection to an 85-year-old farmer called Dennis who was really struggling to keep his cattle fed,” she says.
“Because of his age, he didn’t really know how to reach out for help on social media, or connect with any of the organised charities.
“He only had about 30 cattle left, and he was just trying to hang on to them to get through the drought.
“You could see this 85-year-old man, a proud man who found it hard to ask for help, was so emotional that someone, a complete stranger, had even thought to help him.
“He was just beside himself.”