Raising funds for the Australian Bushfire Crisis
January 3, 2020
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UPDATE: This raffle is now closed! Thank you so much to everyone who participated, shared and chipped in. To find out how much we’ve raised and the raffle prize winners, head on over to the results post.
Dear Jay’s Brick Blog reader, I come to you with an appeal.
Whether you’re a local or someone from overseas, I’m sure you’d have heard about the devastating Australian bushfire crisis.
We’ve been engulfed in an unprecedented bushfire crisis for the last few months, which have intensified due to recent heatwaves as we enter into Summer.
14.7 million acres (larger than the size of Belgium) have been burned and are still burning, 18 people have perished, including brave volunteer firefighters, half a billion animals are estimated to have died and entire towns have been completely destroyed, with no end in sight to this terrifying bushfire season.
Read more about it on the ABC or The Guardian.
It’s really terrifying, and my heart goes out to the thousands of people displaced, who have lost their homes and family members, to the firefighters and emergency services doing their utmost best to help, and for the towns that are still bracing for the worst.
I currently live in a relatively safe area, where I’m not being threatened by bushfires, and yet, there’s this sense of collective dread and sadness, hearing story after story come in from affected areas.
I’ve been thinking of what I can do to help, and outside of personally donating to charities where I can, my thoughts turned to this blog, and the audience that I’ve been blessed to have.
I also am sitting on a stupid amount of LEGO, that’s just lying about in storage which can hopefully be of some good.
UPDATE: We’ve raised over $1,000 in less than 24 hours! Thank you so much for your generosity!
UPDATE (5 Jan): We’ve now raised over $3,000 for the Red Cross!
UPDATE (6 Jan): Over $4,000 raised!
Update (8 Jan): We’ve just crossed over $6,000 donated!
I’d like to see if, we, as a bunch of people passionate about LEGO can come together and do some good and raise some money for the bushfire crisis.
Thousands of readers land on this blog each day, and if each person would donate a dollar, we’d be able to raise a significant amount of money to help with the bushfire crisis.
I’ve started a donation through Paypal, where any donation amount is appreciated.
All proceeds will go towards the Australian Red Cross who have been doing amazing work supporting people on the ground.
I will also be donating 30% of all blog advertising and affiliate revenue from December on top of this donation amount.
Update: The raffle is now closed! I’m busy tabulating the hundreds of donations, and will be running the raffle soon, so keep an eye out to your inboxes for the results, and to find out how much was donated to the Red Cross!
If you don’t have Paypal, and want to donate via bank transfer, please email me at jaysbrickblog@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send you my banking details.
For every AU$1 you donate, you’ll receive one (1) raffle entry, to win some prizes from my personal LEGO collection. This means that a $10 donation, will net you 10x raffle entries.
I will handle the cost of postage worldwide, to anywhere that can receive mail.
Please remember to check this box so that I can get your email address to be in the running!
If you’d just like to give, without going into the raffle, please feel free to uncheck the box. Or just give directly to the Red Cross.
I’ll draw the winners randomly next Sunday, 12 January 2020, and announce them here.
What’s up for grabs?
Grand Prize: The Detention Block Rescue set, an exclusive set given away at Star Wars Celebration 2017.
This is one of my most prized LEGO sets, as I won it in one of those LEGO Twitter Retweet giveaways (yes, you can legit win those!) in 2017, but it’s currently just sitting in a box, and compared to so much that people have lost, it’s really not much.
As you can imagine, this set is rather sought after by collectors and Star Wars fans.
Here are more photos of the box, which is really, really cool and is a numbered set.
Runner’s Up Prize: Harry Potter Bricktober Minifigure Pack
Minor Prize: Some Shell polybags, a Lester Minifigure polybag (from the Leicester Square LEGO Store), a Legoland Train set, and a Thanksgiving Seasonal vignette.
UPDATE: Massive thanks to The Rambling Brick for joining us by contributing TWO more prize packs to help raise more funds.
John from Bricktastic Blog has also chipped in a prize, followed by reader Daniel R.
Rambling Brick Prize #1: 4000016 Billund Airport Set
Rambling Brick Prize #2: Jurassic Park Bricktober set, Year of the Rooster & Easter Chick polybag.
Bricktastic Blog Prize: 42050 Drag Racer donated generously by Bricktasticblog. Note: domestic Australian winners only.
Reader Prize #1: 40336 Newbury Juice Bar, generously donated by reader Daniel R. Note: domestic Australian winners only.
Rick James Bricks Prize #1 and #2: Independent Melbourne LEGO retailer I’m Rick James Bricks has generously donated 1x sealed box of Series 19 and 1x sealed box of Disney Minifigures Series 2 worth AU$300 each! Note: domestic Australian winners only
Reader Prize #2: Builder Steven Asbury (his work has been featured on The Brothers Brick) has graciously donated one of his custom Fire Trucks as a prize. Note: can only be shipped to Australia, USA & UK only.
LAN Prize: Kevin Ahn who oversees Asia Pacific LEGO Ambassadors has also graciously donated two very special sets, 40366 LEGO House Dinosaurs AND 4000026 LEGO House Tree of Creativity. These two sets are only available at the LEGO House in Billund, with the latter set being only limited to 10,000 sets produced.
Reader Prize #3: Reader and fellow LEGO Ambassador Magnus Hindsberger has donated a really special set, 21312 Women of NASA signed by Gemma Anderson, the LEGO Designer who worked on the set. (note: domestic Australian shipping only)
Frostbricks Prize: Frostbricks has also generously donated a pack of Batman sets, which includes 76120 and 76119. (note: domestic Australian shipping only)
Reader Prize #4: Reader Sean Patrick (@brickamaniac) has has also graciously donated a massive prize pack which includes 76107, 60223, and 66549, 40289 Diagon Alley and a Mandalorian Battle Pack.
Every AU$1 donated nets you a raffle ticket, so the more you donate, the more chances you’ll get to win these prizes.
This raffle is open to everyone, and there’s no limit to how many entries you can get.
Any amount of donation is appreciated, and I’d really love to see this LEGO community come together and do some good.
Please don’t feel compelled to donate, if you can’t or have already contributed in some way to the Bushfire relief effort.
If you can, please share this with your LEGO friends, groups to get more visibility.
Thank you so much in advance for your generosity. I’ll leave you with this moving photo from Gayan (@pixelatedimagination) from LEGO Masters Season 1.
