Nova, along with the rest of Australia, have been touched by the horrific plight farmers are currently facing due to the ongoing drought and over the past few months, Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa have talked to some of the families affected and have been so inspired by their stories that they wanted to help.
 
Nova has partnered with Bendigo Bank to support Rural Aid’s efforts by collecting over $110,000 which is being used to support the Forbes Farm Rescue program.
 
The program involves volunteers pitching in and doing jobs many farmers don’t have the time or money to do, helping to improve morale and living conditions through donations of fodder, hampers and more.
 
Rural Aid has organised for the money to go towards helping those who need it most and have also rallied 200 volunteers to help 14 farms in the Forbes area.
 
Fitzy, Wippa and the Nova 96.9 breakfast team will join the volunteers to help the various farms and provide on air support with an outside breakfast broadcast on Thursday 18 October from Forbes showgrounds.
 
Fitzy & Wippa said they are eager to help in any way they can “We’re looking forward to meeting some of the farmers and families and letting them know that the rest of the country are behind them.”
 
Bendigo Bank NSW/ACT State Manager, Kylie Douglass says the partnership with Nova enables them to help suffering communities, “Together we will add more than $110,000 to this cause, with close to $70,000 of that pledged by our network of community-owned branches.
 
“The program is a great demonstration of what can happen when like-minded organisations, committed to doing good, work together.”
 
Rural Aid CEO Charles Alder says, “Having Fitzy and Wippa and the Bendigo Bank team come on board means the Forbes Mega Farm Rescue event will allow us to improve the lives of these farming families and pump valuable dollars into the local community to support businesses doing it tough.”