St Vincent de Paul hands out free trees for the Black Summer bushfires anniversary

In light of the second anniversary, St Vincent de Paul wanted to do something special for the public, and ran events at Willawarrin, Wittitrin and Bellbrook as a part of their Bushfire Recovery and Community Development Program.

They partnered with Bull Native Nursery and handed out trees in each town, with support workers from the Red Cross and Mid North Coast Health also there to help out.

Bellbrook local, Chris Podger lost everything when the fires destroyed his property in 2019, and said the event was incredibly touching.

"The day was fantastic, it was nice getting these big rainforest trees which I put in my property immediately," Mr Podger said.

"These trees, and the ones I received from last year's event will hopefully help bring it back to what it was like before the fires came."

Owner of the Bash and Bull Nursery, Rhonda Minko said each person was able to take three trees home.

"It was great, the events really brought the community together, and there's nothing like trees to do it," Mrs Minko said.

St Vincent de Paul's Chontelle Shore said they handled the events sensitively and were very happy with each turnout.

"We wanted to keep them subtle as some people choose not to acknowledge the second anniversary, and we didn't want to cause them any grief by being abrupt or pushy," Ms Shore said.

"There was support there for people who did want to talk about it, the plants were a really nice touch, representing moving forward, hope and growth, and a lot of people were really happy with that."

Ms Shore noticed that each event turned into a big community meet up.

"We realised that because of COVID, a lot of people haven't been able to see each other, so it actually became a catch up for everyone which was really nice," Ms Shore said.

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