Yep, time to clean out your cupboards for Jigsaw’s annual FuNraising event at Rotary’s Camberwell Sunday Market

Let me know if you have any goodies to donate!!

Come and visit our stall on Sunday March 20, Camberwell Market, Melbourne!

As anyone living in Melbourne knows, April 12 was the coldest day since October 2014, with squalls of rain and hail, so it was with some trepidation we headed off to the market site. _We were daunted but not deterred!_

Half the stall-holders didn’t show up and only about a third of usual punters showed up. Possibly we benefited from less competition on the day! After learning more about the bears’ lives on bile-farms, most people bought something to support our cause and several happily made donations.

Given the conditions we weren’t overly confident about our takings.. So imagine our surprise and great delight to discover we had made almost $2000 for one wet morning! Added to pre-sales of $400, at $2386 it’s our second best total!

My friends brought a happy energy and enthusiasm to their volunteering on the day – I couldn’t do it without them! Heartfelt thanks to Bill, Chris, Annie, Miche, Leanne, Jo & Jo, Rose and Marg. Also to those of you who donated such great goodies for us to sell.

So it was indeed a gloomy day – but one with a Silver Lining! Read our latest newsletter here

Our Camberwell Market stall is coming fast. It’s happening in Melbourne on Sunday April 13 7am – 12 pm. Come and support us on the day and bring some friends along! It’s a great opportunity to share AAF’s work about ending bear-bile farming with them. Plus lots to fossick through so bring your wallet and help add to the $2000 we will raise for Jigsaw’s Bear Care Club…

Read Part 1 of Jigsaw’s Beyond the Bamboo interview with the Director of AAF’s Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre here . It shares when and why Tuan Bendixsen decided to work for Animals Asia and why bears make him laugh!

STOP PRESS: Two cubs have been rescued from a man caught trafficking them from Laos into Vietnam, no doubt for the bear-bile farm industry. Read more about the lucky escape for Dang and James the bear.

And finally, a lovely story about Animals Asia’s bears at their Chengdu sanctuary: The bears are rediscovering their natural instinct to create hibernation “nests”. Share in the delight of the bear staff who photographed this amazing array of nests.

WOO HOO !! WE’VE DONE IT !! Jigsaw has romped over the finish line for his 2012 puzzle,with a bit of extra cash on his rump!

We have taken our total – in just over 3 years – to $33,000 – 80% through this website, with your personal donations.

Thank you to all of you who supported – and continue to support –  Jigsaw’s Bear Care Club!YOU make it FUN to care for our bear! And every $ you donate makes it easier for Animals Asia to care for Jigsaw… and reach out to other bears needing their help…

Don’t Worry! If you missed out donating your piece of THIS puzzle, there will be another one along sooooon!!

And if you live in Melbourne, then come along to my Trash’n’Treasure sale this Sunday, March 3 at Camberwell Rotary TnT market. Lots of pre-loved goodies and…… a peek look at some merchandise!!  The wonderful Anne Leon of Byron Bay has produced some beautiful moon bear artwork for us to use on tea-towels and other goodies. Come along and get yours this Sunday!!

With generous Winter donations our total crept up steadily from $7000 to $9000, taking our puzzle over the magic 60 pieces mark – almost 2/3 of the way there!  Then Spring well and truly “blossomed” for Jigsaw and suddenly the prospect of counting down the remaining pieces has become a very real and exciting prospect!

Firstly, some dear friends held a lovely big sunny picnic day at their cottage in the country and quickly turned it into a FUN-raiser surprise for our bear!  With a giant bonfire to burn before the summer fire restrictions, the honour of lighting the bonfire was raffled off for Jigsaw. Guests quickly “warmed” to the idea of helping our bear and, along with some other raffle items generously donated on the spur of the moment, a quick $250 was raised and joyfully celebrated.

Then, on Sunday, October 10, after months of  preparation, donations of assorted goods and with the fabulous support of many friends – before, during and after – we booked a double stall at the highly successful Camberwell Trash and Treasure Market and in five and half hours raised a whopping total of $2080!!! After expenses, we netted $1940. Suddenly our overall total has jumped from $9316 to $11,256.

The market was a full-on experience:  our finely-tuned team arrived at 5 am to set up the stall (an art in itself to do well), with reinforcements arriving mid-morning. Hundreds of people stopped to read the posters and printouts we displayed and to find out more about bear bile farming. Many took away the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) pamphlets and our own AdoptAMoonBear business card.  While there were quite a few people who knew about bear bile farming (and mentioned recent documentaries on TV), there were hundreds who had no idea of the atrocious abuse of Moon Bears. Every one of those people will have been touched in some way by their interaction with our stall and Jigsaw’s story, and hopefully some will be moved to become more permanent supporters of AAF.

People expressed their compassion for the plight of the bears through their generosity. Shoppers came to the stall specifically to donate money (ie without purchasing anything), some almost in tears as they quickly gave us their donation. Others gave us back their change. Quite a few shoppers looked determinedly for something to buy, just so they could support the bears! A lady was overheard at the other end of the market (and it is a HUGE venue), talking excitedly about the “wonderful people saving the Moon Bears up the other end of the market!”, while showing her purchase (from our stall) to her friends. And a woman with 2 small children suggested they each buy one soft toy for 50 cents while encouraging them to donate the remaining 50 cents of their $1 coins.

The money raised turned over 12 more pieces of our Jigsaw, bringing the total to 72!  Suddenly there only 22 pieces to go!!

All the hard work required to bring our market stall into being was worth every cent we made for our beautiful, long-suffering Moon Bear, Jigsaw.

Of course, none of this could have happened without the tremendous support and creative talents of my friends and my husband, Bill, who have supported Jigsaw from the very beginning, with donations and a willingness to be involved in any way I ask. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to them all for their encouragement and support in holding strong the vision of rescuing our beautiful bear.

So Springtime has brought with it a real flourishing of fur for our bear! And do you know what….I can almost feel Jigsaw breathing, pricking up his ears and smelling his freedom….