A cool idea to help with Australia bushfire relief

***Addendum: As indicated in a the comment below, the actual sale hasn’t started yet. This entry will be updated again when it has.***

A friend and fellow ATPM colleague, Raena, sent an e-mail outlining a plan to sell some terrific books at discounted prices and contribute the proceeds to the bushfire relief efforts in Victoria, Australia. This is a very, very cool thing. Feel free to pass on this information.

You might have seen in the news that massive bushfires in Victoria, Australia have killed more than 130 people with many more expected, and it’s left thousands homeless and in need of emergency care.

News, images, and reports: http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/ and http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2009/national/darkestday/

People on the ground are describing the scene in the same way that one might describe a bombing or a war zone. It is, basically, horrific.

If you didn’t already know, many of us at SitePoint are based right here in Melbourne. While many of us are safe and live well away from the fires, some haven’t been so lucky and have had to spend the last few days worrying about missing friends or family, helping their communities, or keeping a watchful eye on homes. Australians are pulling together amazingly—massive donations are taking place, the Australian Red Cross are actually having to turn away blood donors and are asking them to come back later, and the people on the ground are inundated with offers from volunteers. This is really heartening, but so much help will still be needed over the coming weeks and months.

We’ve received advice that the best way to help out now is to give money. So, what we’ll be doing today at SitePoint is this—we’re having a big sale of our popular Web development books and donating all the profits to bushfire relief. We’re discounting these deeply, so customers will save a truckload while helping contribute to this very deserving cause.

If you’re able to help us spread the word, please let me know so I can keep you in the loop. We’ll kick things off once we have the sale set up, so if you’re willing to help out by spreading the word, please drop me a line and I’ll let you know when we launch it. We can provide you with heaps of info to use in blog posts or news if you’ll need it, and we’ll be getting all over social media with messages to pass on.

If you can’t help out, but you think you know someone who can, please also feel free to pass on my details OR those of our general manager, Luke.

Raena Jackson Armitage
+61 404 108 522 (my mobile phone—please, call or SMS if you like)
raena.armitage@sitepoint.com
Google Talk: raena.armitage@gmail.com

Luke Cuthbertson
+61 3 9090 8200 (landline on Australia Eastern business hours – check http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html)
luke@sitepoint.com