We Need Your Help!

I have wanted to make this set for a long time, but it kept getting pushed down my to-do list. Koalas are my favourite animal. Not only are they so darn cute, but I can relate to their behaviour - they are often slow, sleepy and when you watch them, they seem to not care one little bit about much at all - except eating and snoozing - oh the life! They are happy to just chill in the corner branch of a tall Eucalypt (gum) tree. 

For the last week or so, my home state of New South Wales has been battling horrendous bushfires. Our 'woods' or 'forest' here in Australia is called 'The Bush'.

My city of Lake Macquarie has not been sparred - we have had fires to our North, West and South. Thankfully my little suburb has so far been relatively protected, but the fire season is not over yet - we are only in the middle of Spring here and we have a long hot summer ahead. 

Perhaps the worst of the fires near me, were those to the north, in the Port Stephens and Heatherbrae areas - around a 40 minutes drive from me.  I spent many vacations in the Port Stephens area as a child, and just visited again in early October for a few days.

The Port Stephens area has been identified as one of the richest koala sites in my state, and contains prime habitat which supports one of our last viable koala populations (koala's are currently classified as a vulnerable and rare species - this in itself is a huge concern).

Of the many eucalypt trees that grow in Australia, only a few will be suitable for koalas  - you can imagine what that means when we have these horrendous bushfires. If the koalas happen to survive, they are often left struggling to find their favourite trees and leaves. While most Australian wildlife will run when they smell bushfire smoke, the slow moving koala will just move higher into the canopy of their tree. 

I am going to send 100% of the profits from the sale of this set to a non-profit organisation "Wildlife In Need of Care" that cares for injured Australian Wildlife in the Ports Stephens area - not just the koala. 

They care for injured wildlife and nurse them back to health. When it's not  bushfire season, they are helping animals that have been injured by speeding cars and domestic pets. I heard volunteers from this organization on the radio through the week, and I knew I wanted to help somehow. I am house-bound temporarily,  after having some minor surgery myself, so I got  busy creating these koalas today.

Included in this clipart set is a special badge that you can put on your blog IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO to show that you have supported the koalas. Please link back to this post if you can, so we can spread the news. 

If you would like your students to learn  more about Koalas, there is some excellent information on this site HERE

Please visit my TpT clipart store and consider purchasing this set to help me help our wildlife!

Thanks for stopping by!