Geraldine Nortje

Funds to help the fire affected have been, and continue to be, raised in many and varied ways, as a number of our stories inside show.

One event, a pop-up fashion shop in an empty space in Terralong St raised $7300 in a weekend’s trading.

New clothes were donated by local retailers and near new clothes by an enthusiastic public after the call went out by organiser Anna Tydd. The owner of the shop offered it rent free for the cause.

“People were encouraged to name their own price for the clothes, and their generosity was amazing,” says Geraldine Nortje (right), a local designer with an outlet in Berry who got behind the initiative by donating clothes and helping to run the shop.

A more traditional fundraising cake stall, operating outside the shop and run by children, raised $1000 for the cause.