Janine Bothe and her husband could be kicking back on banana beds in Hawaii, Fiji or the Maldives, but they’ve instead chosen to take leave to assist a community devastated by the bushfires.
Janine and her husband Rob Ryan are among the many volunteers pitching in on the South Coast of NSW with BlazeAid, an organisation that works with communities in rural Australia hit hard by fires and other natural disasters.
A host of Sydney Swans players, including Callum Mills, Callum Sinclair and Ryan Clarke, were in Milton this week to help Janine, Rob and the many other volunteers assist in bushfire-recovery efforts.
Tuesday and Wednesday saw the Swans divide between the South Coast, the Illawarra, the Southern Highlands, Port Macquarie, the Hunter Valley and the Central Coast for the annual AFL Community Camp.
Janine and Rob don't have to spend a week rebuilding fences, clearing burnt wood and raking rubble, but Janine says they are determined to have an impact.
“We were very keen to come down here and help,” Janine said.
“We were down here before Christmas looking for a job for my husband, and we come down here a lot for holidays, so we love the place. Then when the fires ripped through we discussed how we could help out in some way. Then we were waiting for the BlazeAid Milton camp to open up, which it did two weeks ago, and I managed to get my holidays approved in a short amount of time.
“It’s heartbreaking what’s happened down here. Yesterday we were out at Yatte Yattah and there were all these green shoots coming through on the dead trees, but when you look down on Lake Conjola the big picture is it’s all black. So much forest is gone, cars have been wiped out and houses are destroyed. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to go through the summer that these people have.”
Janine works as a nurse at St George Hospital in Kogarah and a lecturer in Master of Health at the University of Wollongong, while Rob earns his living as a builder.
Their son, Coby Ryan, who studies a Bachelor of Criminology at the University of Wollongong, also used his holidays to volunteer with BlazeAid for a brief time.
A host of Sydney players cooked breakfast for the BlazeAid volunteers at Milton Showground on Wednesday, before they all set out for a community clean-up.
Janine is in awe of the community spirit of the South Coast locals.
“The locals we’ve spoken to have said it’s actually brought them closer together,” Janine said.
“There are some neighbours who they never used to talk to but they now feel like they’re much more of a community, even though they’re all still so devastated. I’m sure they’ll feel it for years and years to come but the good thing is they’re banding together.”
Sydney’s players not only spread out across NSW to help locals recover from the summer from hell; they set up a GoFundMe page that’s raised more than $13,000.
Callum Mills (All Stars), Jake Lloyd (Victoria) and Tom Papley (Victoria) have also been selected for next Friday night’s State of Origin match for bushfire relief at Marvel Stadium.
Janine said the Swans added a genuine buzz to the BlazeAid fight.
“It’s great to have the Swans here giving everyone a boost,” Janine said.
“It was great to have the boys cooking us breakfast and I think it just gives everyone a lift, even if we don’t barrack for the Swans.
“It’s of course also pretty awesome to be rubbing shoulders with professional footballers.”
