A devilishly good cause
Don’t be alarmed when you see 100 trident-wielding devils marching down Oxford St this Mardi Gras. The apocalypse is not upon us. It is in fact just the Tasmanian contingent doing its part to promote the Save the Tasmanian Devil Foundation.
With nearly half of the state’s Tasmanian devil population suffering from devil facial tumour disease, Tasmania’s Mardi Gras entrants decided to bring the issue to the attention of thousands of spectators.
“We started off trying to think of a theme, and obviously we wanted it to be Tasmania related, so then we got onto Tasmanian devils and loved the idea of dressing as naughty little devils for the parade,” organiser Mark Howell said.
“We needed sponsorship to get it going so we approached the Tasmanian Devil Program. We’d actually started going ahead without them knowing about it, but when we approached them they were just really excited and pleased to see we’d got the ball rolling.”
The group has already managed to raise over $10,000, on top of their Mardi Gras costs, to donate to the charity and will be looking to increase that number and awareness of the devil’s plight while in Sydney.
“We’re so happy that we’ve already managed to raise our goal of $10,000, and might even exceed it,” Howell said.
“It’s been so great to get that support from local Tasmanian businesses.”
Save the Tasmanian Devil Foundation, www.tassiedevil.com.au.
