Saturday 7th of February gave us a chilly summer morning
in Sydney. So when it came to starting the Deluminators’ first campaign of the
year - Care of Magical (Australian) Creatures- we were glad to be greeted into
the nice warm home of new recruit Steph. The goal of the day was to sew makeshift
pouches for marsupials who had lost their parents in bushfires, and mittens for
koalas whose poor paws had been burnt by the fires, as part of the
International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Project Pouch.
Project Pouch aims to provide pouches (made from 100%
cotton) for orphaned joeys and other marsupials who might otherwise become ill
without the warmth and comfort of their mother’s pouches. (International
readers please note: this is a project not, as English Deluminator Joanna
thought, because mother kangaroos somehow lose only their pouches in bushfires)
As the day heated up, more members arrived to help, and we soon had a steady production line of cutting, pinning, and sewing.
By the end of the day, we’d made 36 tiny mittens for koala burn victims (36? BUT LAST YEAR, LAST YEAR THERE WERE 37) and 8 pouches for orphaned marsupials.
While we set out with an unofficial goal of making 100 items, we still did extraordinarily well, considering we lost both our sewing machines quite early on and consequently had to hand-sew the rest, and also the fact that very few of us even knew how to sew to begin with.
At the end of the day, many members went home with a stack of unused cotton and cutting patterns - to make more at home, so that we can send off another stack after our next meeting.
Overall, Care of Magical Australian Creatures has been a
promising start to a great year! Not only did we help some tiny Australian
marsupials, but most of us learnt the important life skill that is sewing,
which I have no doubt will be useful for future projects :)
Until next bushfire season,
Christine!
