Make A Difference Day | Supporting Our Community
As we join to celebrate all those amazing volunteers and organisations that are a part of Make A Difference Day, The Margaret River Chocolate Company is proud to have been supporting a wide range of community and charitable organisations throughout Western Australia for more than 25 years.
From its inception in Margaret River in1999 the company has been involved with hundreds of community groups, sporting clubs and charities across WA, as well as some of the state’s most high profile not-for-profit organisations such as Ngala, Ronald McDonald House and the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Some of its most significant funding partnerships have been in the areas of conservation and research of local endangered fauna, including the quokka, western swamp tortoise, white bellied frog and WA’s state fauna emblem, the numbat.
The company launched a major partnership with The Rottnest Foundation and Rottnest Island Authority a decade ago to fund ongoing quokka conservation and research, as despite the quokka’s abundance on Rottnest, their survival on the mainland remains threatened.
At around the same time it also partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to purchase radio collars for 30 quokkas identified as the last remaining of a population of approximately 500 that were devastated by the Northcliffe bush fires.
The quokka is a unique and much loved Western Australian icon and its smile that has captivated the world.
Native to the South West and Great Southern regions of WA, the quokka is listed as “vulnerable” by both State and Federal Governments and is on the ‘International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species’. Rottnest Island has the largest remaining population of quokkas.
Part proceeds from the sale of most of the company’s chocolate quokka products go to The Rottnest Foundation, to fund quokka projects both on Rottnest Island and throughout Western Australia.
Even earlier in 2011 the company joined with Swan Valley based community group the Friends of the Western Swamp Tortoise (FoWST) to help save Australia’s oldest and rarest reptile.
The Western Swamp Tortoise was thought to be extinct for over 100 years until small pockets of them were discovered in a number of wetlands in Perth’s historic Swan Valley in the 1950s.
Work by the Western Swamp Tortoise Recovery Team, including the Department of Environment and Conservation, Perth Zoo and FoWST, has brought the plight of the critically endangered species to international attention and has subsequently seen numbers in the wild slowly increase.
However the fight to save the Western Swamp Tortoise is far from over and The Margaret River Chocolate Company remains the group’s largest individual donor.
Every year The Margaret River Chocolate Company receives hundreds of requests for support, covering everything from school fundraisers to major charitable projects and while we can’t support everything, we do our best to spread the love as far and wide as possible.
Enjoy your make a Difference Day.