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Peter Hannaford of JESWA, outside their successful store
in Healesville, which will help raise funds to match each
dollar contributed to the ‘Missing Link’ by mecu customers. |
It sounds unusual for a charity to donate to a business – but mecu’s award-winning Conservation Landbank is doing such a great job for the environment that the Judith Eardley Save Wildlife Association (JESWA) contributed $250,000 to our program.
This donation 2010 helped to purchase the largest of our Landbank’s three conservation properties - a 236-hectare reserve at Ozenkadnook in far Western Victoria. The reserve is habitat for the critically-endangered South-Eastern Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo.
JESWA – a not-for-profit organisation based at Healesville – was established by Peter Hannaford as a legacy to his late partner (Judith Eardley). Judith was an animal lover who had hoped to spend her retirement helping animals but sadly passed away in 1997.
Peter says Judith grew up on a farm but was so caring of animals that the geese being fattened up for Christmas would reputedly survive as her ‘friends’.
Since he established the Association in her honour and memory 11 years ago, JESWA has donated millions of dollars raised mainly through a bric-a-brac / second-hand goods shop, to a variety of projects to protect wildlife. The shop in Healesville’s main street is run entirely by volunteers.
Now in 2011, JESWA is taking on a new challenge – raising funds to build a ‘Missing Link’ in the remaining habitat for Victoria’s critically endangered bird emblem, the Helmeted Honeyeater.
And they need your help!
A captive breeding and release program for Helmeted Honeyeaters has been running at Healesville Sanctuary for over 20 years yet only 120 birds currently exist in the wild, mainly at Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve (YNCR) in the Yarra Valley.
The ‘Missing Link’ project will connect YNCR to another regional park, Kurth Kiln which is also suitable for these little birds by planting a corridor of native vegetation. This will help the Helmeted Honeyeaters to increase their viable population over time. The link will also improve survival rates of other threatened native species.
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Endemic to Victoria, only 120 Helmeted Honeyeaters
currently exist in the wild. |
JESWA has committed to match each dollar contributed to the ‘Missing Link’ by mecu customers with another dollar. So this is a fantastic opportunity for us all to do something that will make an enormous difference to the environment. Your donation can be as small as $2 or as big as you like.
If you want to help mecu and Judith Eardley Save Wildlife Association build this vital “Missing Link” visit themissinglink.org.au, or visit the JESW charity shop next time you’re in Healesville.
To find out more about JESWA, visit jesavewildlife.org