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By Dylana Kneeshaw

CRAFTING FOR A CAUSE

Kamloops-based craft group ready to send off projects for animal rescue efforts in Australia

Jan 18, 2020 | 8:35 AM

KAMLOOPS — A group of creatively-inclined people from the Kamloops area have been putting their crafting passions to good use over the last week.

Several groups throughout Kamloops have formed to knit, crochet, or sew specialty items for animals who have suffered during the destructive wildfires in Australia.

Stela Meloche is from Savona and part of one of the crafter groups in Kamloops making these items. She says the group started about a week ago, following the lead of the Crafters Guild in Australia to use their talents for a good cause.

“They encouraged people to crochet, sew, or knit items that will help the animal rescuers in Australia,” she says, “Those poor animals are injured. Animals like bats, wallabies, kangaroos, koalas. The babies who lost their mothers need pouches so we’ve been sewing a lot of pouches, we’ve been making nests, crochet people make nests for birds and small animals, beds, blankets, and so on.”

Today (Jan. 18), Meloche and other crafters are going to be gathering up donated items that fit the requirements of what can actually be used in Australia.

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The group will meet in Sahali Mall around 11:30 am, and once items are collected and marked down, Meloche will be sending the shipment to Vancouver. From there, she says it’ll be put on one of the cargo planes Air Canada has pledged to use for the cause.

“Air Canada offered to take cargo from six major Canadian cities, Vancouver being one, and take it to Australia free of charge.”

For now, more items are not needed by Australia, and the country’s crafters guild has asked people to simply finish their projects currently being worked on, and wait to hear if more are needed.

To get in touch with the group for updates, Meloche says they can be found online through the Canadian Animal Rescue Crafters Guild page on Facebook. (Accessed here)