A small business owner in HRM is trying to do her part to help those affected by the wildfires that continue to ravage California and displace thousands.
Tanya Neary owns O Sweet Madeline, a sewing business she has run out of her home in Mount Uniacke since 2008.
Neary has friends who live in California who have been evacuated twice and that made her want to do something to help.
“It’s just such an awful, scary situation. My daughter said to me the other day, ‘What if we did scrunchies and sold them?’ And I said, ‘sure’.”
Neary adds, this is not the first time she has used her skills to help others.
“We’ve fundraised for a couple of animal charities when we had the fires in Hammonds Plains in Shelburne a couple of years ago. [For the] Ukraine war we did some sunflower scrunchies and sold a lot of those.”
She says people are always eager to help.
People starting to reach out…
O Sweet Madeline products are found in a few stores around town.
Products range from accessories to kids clothing, bonnets, Christmas stockings and more.
To help with the California wildfires, Neary has made “Scrunchie Mystery Bags”, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation.
There are three scrunchies in each bag with different categories:
So far, Neary has sold about 30, bringing in $130, but says she will continue the effort for a few weeks and see what happens.
“Sometimes there’s a huge response. Like, the Ukraine war, I fundraised for the World Central Kitchen. I think it was close to $500 I raised for them.”
Neary says, times are tough for people and this way residents get to help even with a small amount.
“I mean the winds picked up again. I don’t know… the world is heavy right now, it feels.”
