The Teddy Bears’ Picnic in Broome is a HUGE success!
May 1st, 2017
Broome is a remote and relaxed town in the far north western corner of Australia. Situated more than 2200km to the north of Perth, the capital of Western Australia, and with sweeping views of the Indian Ocean, yesterday it was an unlikely setting for a fundraising event to benefit the world’s rarest bears.
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic was held to raise much needed funds for the critically endangered Gobi bears of Mongolia. Not even the threat of a cyclone off the coast could deter the many patrons who visited the Gobi bear stall on the Broome Courthouse markets’ lawn.
The initiative was the collective brainchild of students from the local Roebuck Primary School, including Matilda Somerville, Gracie Duffield and Spencer Birch, and teacher Sue Duffield. Matilda’s mother Katy Crawford is the founding secretary of Australian based charity MongoliAid.
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic raised over $600 to help MongoliAid fund a supplemental Gobi bear feeding program in the Great Gobi Strictly Protected Area. There are less than 40 Gobi bears left in the GGSPA and scientists and park rangers have struggled to fund the much needed delivery of pelletized biscuits.
Visitors to the Gobi bear stall were able to purchase cupcakes, buy a raffle ticket for a giant teddy bear and to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. The shady environs of the Courthouse lawns was the perfect place to spread a blanket, to enjoy a fresh dessert and to read and to perhaps think about Gobi bears.
Mazaalai – the Mongolian word for Gobi bears – need all the friends they can get, but within the hearts of the young people of Broome and their fantastic supporters, they have friends in the most far flung of Australian places.
