Santa has arrived early at the Forever Friends Animal Rescue (FFAR) to help the organisation turn cans into cash while saving the environment.
Father and Mother Christmas were reportedly seen by Star Mail reporter OLIVER WINN walking the hills of the FFAR farm in Gladysdale, carrying large sacks of recyclable cans to raise money for the volunteer-run rescue.
FFAR maintenance manager Robert Pike (who is rumoured to be Father Christmas) said they’d raised $5000 in the two years the cash for cans fundraiser has been running.
“It started off fairly slowly, but our main contributor is volunteers at the sanctuary.
“So far, we’ve just cracked the $5000 mark, which is 50,000 containers, and from our point of view, it’s 50,000 containers that haven’t gone to landfill,” Mr Pike said.
In November 2023, the rescue started collecting recyclable containers to drop off at one of the Victorian Government’s Container Deposit Scheme (SDC) locations.
The reverse vending machines let users deposit recyclable containers and earn a 10c refund for every container they deposit.
“It’s just a good feeling, the way the world’s going, we’ve got to try and save whatever we can.
“But my biggest aim is giving valuable funds to the sanctuary,” Mr Pike said.
FFAR is a volunteer-run not for profit animal rescue which houses 80 species of animals and is run by over 700 volunteers.
It rescues and rehabilitates the most vulnerable animals in the community, having successfully rescued and rehabilitated over 10,000 animals since its inception in 2011.
Despite being one of the largest animal welfare organisations in the state, FFAR is a registered charity which sometimes only barely scrapes by financially.
“We’re always on the limit, which is always a worry because you’ve got to feed the animals. But at least the cash for cans do help a little bit,” Mr Pike said.
FFAR founder Saskia Adams said medical costs for animals was the biggest impact on the rescue’s finances.
“The biggest cost for any rescue group, any shelter, is the cost of medical care for the thousand plus animals that come in at any given time of the year for us.”
Ms Adams said the average cost per animal for her shelter was roughly $400 each.
“So if we’re saving over 1,000 lives a year, we’re very quickly heading to half a million dollars’ worth of medical costs [per year],” she said.
Forever Friends Animal Rescue are always looking for more volunteers to help the organisation run.
Those interested in signing up are encouraged to visit their website: foreverfriends.org.au.
Mr Pike takes it upon himself to handle the process of collecting the containers.
“I take all the cans and bottles from the sanctuary home, separate them into bottles, cans and plastics, put them in black plastic bags and take them to Tommy Finn’s Trout Farm because he’s a bulk depot, as well as an over-the-counter depot.”
Mr Pike said businesses and clubs could help support FFAR by donating their recyclable containers to the rescue, and if any were interested, they can contact him on his email: robert.p@foreverfriends.org.au.
“It doesn’t seem much but every 10 cents helps,” he said.
