Wildlife Information Rescue and Education (WIRES) have received a $15,000 donation from Newcastle Permanent’s employee donation program, enabling the charity to continue the rescue and protection of endangered wildlife in Clarence Valley.

The contribution comes from Newcastle Permanent’s employee donation program CommunityAssist – that gives more than $65,000 to charities each year.

CommunityAssist enables employees to donate funds directly from their pay to local charities. Employees nominate and vote for the charities who will share the funds raised from the program.

Following the devastating bushfires at the start of the year, Newcastle Permanent’s people selected the wildlife rescue group as part of this round of donations, in preparation for the upcoming bushfire season.

WIRES will invest half the donation into building a Glider Flight Rehabilitation Aviary in Clarence Valley, to provide a safe haven for gliders that have been injured in the fires. The other half will be granted to Hunter Wildlife Rescue, who will use the funds to train more volunteers ahead of the upcoming bushfire season, enabling the not-for-profit to continue their great work of rescuing and rehabilitation of wildlife.

WIRES CEO, Leanne Taylor said how appreciative they were to receive the funds.

“WIRES would like to thank the staff at Newcastle Permanent for their generous donation following the terrible bushfires,” Leanne said.

“The support will fund the building of a much-needed glider aviary and allow local volunteers to fully rehabilitate the many gliders that come into care, which is a critical component of the pre-release process,” Leanne said.

Vickii Lett is a glider carer for WIRES and will be working at the Glider Flight Rehabilitation Aviary.

“We rescue many types of gliders in the Clarence Valley area, including threatened species such as Squirrel Gliders and Greater Gliders,” Vikii said.

“This purpose-built rehabilitation aviary will give our rescued gliders the time and space they require to rebuild strength and allow us to nurse them to full health before their release back into the wild,” Vikii said.

Newcastle Permanent also donated $15,000 to the RFS from this round of Community Assist.

For more information about the Community Assist Program please visit www.newcastlepermanent.com.au/community and for more information about WIRES and Hunter Wildlife Rescue please www.wires.org.au and www.hunterwildlife.org.au