Thanks, From Brendan

This post was written by an amazing volunteer and helicopter pilot, Brendan Alexander.

For me, Australia was a chance to help people who would benefit greatly from my actions, and truly appreciate what we were there to do. Helping someone with a favor, say driving them to the airport, is always appreciated. However, helping someone who desperately needs it, someone who may have unexpectedly lost everything, now that is a good feeling. To some, traveling half way across the world to build fences may not seem very helpful. To the wonderful folks of Coonabarabran, what we were able to do was a Godsend.

Some of these folks lost homes, some lost livestock, some lost everything. One thing I find remarkable is that some of these folks walked off of their own property, sacrificed the manpower to protect their own belongings solely to help their neighbors protect theirs. This family united by the boarders of a town needed–better yet, deserved– our help. Enter Trinity West Crisis Dispatch. Without them, I would never have had the opportunity to do what we did, to do my part.

TWCD offers organization to a bunch of people want to help, but may not know how to get the ball rolling.  TWCD is only a fraction of who is responsible for our adventure though. BlazeAid is also largely responsible for the success or our journey,  providing us with the food, shelter, guidance and tools necessary to get to work. BlazeAid is made of volunteers–the ones in our camp were primarily retired Aussies who travel the country and stop for the chance to help, and get a little camping in at the same time.  This is another point where our group from TWCD was helpful. At the end of our Journey, Laurie Dawson expressed to us and the rest of camp how grateful he was, simply for our age. He told us we had been working a job that wouldn’t have been able to be done had it not been for our youth and energy. That right there gave me a feeling of accomplishment, knowing that what we did really mattered to them.

Even with the help of these two organizations, we still needed help. Thats where the most important aspect of our journey comes into place: sponsors. Without donors and sponsors, it would have been impossible for us to make the journey. Whether you donated personally, or just spread the word of what our mission was, you were a success, and passed that success on to us. So I, and we, from the bottom of our hearts say “thank you!” Thank you for believing in us, for enabling us to to help those who are known for helping others, and for loving our neighbors.