By Andy Young
South Australian brewery Coopers has united with Hickinbotham, a family-owned building company from the state, in helping to support Pinery bushfire relief.
The two companies will put $12,000 in beer into two relief events, at Long Plains Oval on 13 December and Kapunda Harness Racing Complex on 19 December.
All sales of the donated beer at the two events will go directly to BlazeAid and Uniting Care Wesley.
Managing director Michael Hickinbotham said he and Coopers Brewery managing director Dr Tim Cooper were keen to help the community.
"Many in the South Australian community are giving remarkable support to victims of the Pinery bushfire,” Hickinbotham said.
"I am in awe of what the community can do when we come together. The two local mayors, Bill O’Brien at Light Regional and Duncan Kennington at Mallala, told us they wanted to build support and fundraising at the community events.
"When I ran into Tim Cooper at a business engagement later that day and suggested we work on it together, he jumped straight in.”
Dr Cooper said Coopers was delighted to be involved with Hickinbotham in thanking the volunteers who had risked their lives to combat the recent fires.
“Coopers has a long-standing tradition of helping the South Australian community,” he said.
“We were happy to match the contribution from Hickinbotham and hope the two events this month will provide a much needed boost to BlazeAid and the Uniting Care Wesley.”
Dr Cooper said all of the malt used by Coopers comes from barley grown by South Australian growers, so Coopers was particularly mindful of the impact fires can have on farmers.
Donations to the Pinery bushfire appeal can be made to the State Emergency Relief Fund, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, BSB: 065 266, account: 10020160.