Australia is on fire...and they need help.
Estimated a billion + animals have perished, over 12.5 million acres of land burnt, thousands of homes destroyed, and at least 8 humans lost. This devastation is heart breaking and the pain these families and animals are enduring is unfathomable from a safe place like the east coast of Florida.
It's time to fight these fires with action. To support all those who have been fighting these bushfires and rescuing the beloved animals that live there, The WSMS Surf Stop and Where Salt Meets Soul will be donating 100% of sales for our Burnt Out and Half Sun tee designs as well as hosting a local love relief raffle in store through the end of the month.
"The Burnt Out Tee design stemmed from a series of journal drawings from my west coast van trip in 2018. It was during the time the big Sacramento and Malibu fires were growing. Thankfully for me, these fires sparked up and started to spread as I was pulling off the grid into Big Sur.
I became tuned out for four days, hiding within the Big Sur boundaries, where I had a significant amount of time to ponder the fires and the modern day threats to our environment. Which feels overwhelmingly unstoppable- what change can be done?
I drew a series of drawings that reflected the toxic impact we have on our land, our oceans and the air we breathe. This series emphasized the harm being down to Mother Earth and how we need to do our part to keep Her, and in result us, from getting "burnt out". We have one earth, there's no planet B. As a team, we felt this particular drawing should make it's way into our first year of Where Salt Meets Soul tee designs to hopefully help spread awareness.
Because of the paralleled relevance behind this tee shirt and the current gut wrenching fires and devastation in Australia, we will be selling off the rest of these Tee's and donating 100% of the proceeds to Greening Australia who's role in bushfire recovery efforts include the development and coordination of a 10-year native seed and plant supply strategy for landscape restoration, recovery and resilience in bushfire impacted areas (including other vulnerable landscapes across Australia). You can get the Burnt Out tee in store or here on our website. Whether you like the drawing or not, we hope our community will help promote unity in an effort to help those in need-and Australia is in desperate need. Every little bit helps!"
-Alec Zappone
On on top of donating 100% of the burnt out tee proceeds, our crew at The Surf Stop reached out to local sellers and makers to put together a Local Love Relief Raffle. Every dollar made during the raffle will be donated to WIRES, which is the largest non-profit wildlife rescue and rehabilitation charity in Australia, specializing in caring for native animals- as well as Headspace! Who provide mental health support for Australian youth. They will also be providing emergency assistance for those dealing with trauma facing this natural disaster. Local love provided by:
Where Salt Meets Soul
WSMS Surf Art Music Camp
Conner Hats
Raw Elements
Minorcan Mike's
Ariel Kellogg
Madcrame
Harper Co.
AO Fragrances
Art By Susie
Beachbreak Bracelets
To enter the raffle you can either stop in The Surf Stop (101 F ST, St. Augustine beach) to buy tickets, OR you can Venmo our shop account the $5 per ticket with the raffle number you want to be entered in. If you live out of town, you can still enter! If your ticket is picked and you can’t pick up your prize it will cost an extra $5 for shipping. Good luck to all and remember this is a fundraiser! The more tickets sold, the more we can donate!
SHOP VENMO: @WSMS-SurfStop
Where to donate:
Animal Rescues
-WIRES Wildlife Rescue: https://www.wires.org.au/donate/emergency-fund
(Our donation outlet of choice)
-RSPCA New South Wales https://www.rspcansw.org.au/donate/
-Wildlife Victoria https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/donate/donate-to-wildlife-victoria
-Port Macquarie Koala Hospital https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-thirsty-koalas-devastated-by-recent-fires
-Koalas in Care http://www.koalasincare.org.au/pages/donation.htm
-The World Wildlife Fund https://support.worldwildlife.org/site/SPageNavigator/donate_to_charity
Relief
-Headspace https://headspace.org.au/
-Greening Australia https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/
-Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/
-Australian Red Cross https://www.redcross.org.au/
-Salvation Army
-Rural Aid
State Based Fire Brigades
-New South Wales
-Rural Fire Service
-Tasmania Fire Service
-Country Fire Authority
-Rural Fire Brigades Association
Thank you from our family to yours.