Women in drought-ravaged New South Wales will feel beautiful in a new outfit thanks to the generosity of a south-west business owner.
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Port Fairy’s Love Her Madly donated stock worth $4500, including dresses and tops, to Fill The Truck - NSW Drought Fund relief drive.
Owner Rachael Street said she had new stock that hadn’t sold and decided to donate it instead.
“I thought I could put them on sale for $30 each or I could donate it so I decided I’d prefer to donate it,” Ms Street said. “I have got a bit of a soft spot for the farmers and I have been feeling for them so I was really happy to donate that stuff.”
She contacted Dresses for Drought after seeing it on the Today show but when she contacted the organisers they had ceased collections because they had been overwhelmed with donations.
She put a post on the Love Her Madly Facebook page asking for suggestions of other groups she could donate to, when someone suggested Portland’s Fill The Truck – NSW Drought Fund.
She gave them “four big boxes” of women’s clothing which was transported interstate.
Ms Street said the Fill The Truck organisers contacted her recently to let her know where the goods went to.
Some of the boxes went to Cobar in central western New South Wales, where they were donated to one of the schools for the girls to wear to their formal and the others were given to women living in Condobolin, in the state’s central west.
“I got a bit teary,” Ms Street said. “I got a message from the Fill The Truck and it said the women were really happy and excited to get the dresses.”
In a message to Ms Street, drive organsers said farmers’ daughters were either not going to their formals because they had nothing to wear or they were trying to buy suitable dresses from the op shop.
“It was sad to hear but you have made a difference,” the organiser said to Ms Street in the message.
“I felt a bit teary thinking about that. It’s only a tiny difference but if it’s a difference I’ve made to a few girls, it makes me feel pretty good that I could help.”
Ms Street has put a call out to other retail businesses with new stock they’d been unable to move to donate it to charity.
“I think every retail business has stock out the back that has been sitting there for a long time. I think people need to think about where they can donate it to.
“There’s always places people can donate to, especially women’s refuges and things like that. I think people need to get on board and do it.”
