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Staff Reporter
A network has come together to provide financial support to one of its staff, who lost her home in the bushfires that ravaged New South Wales in October.
Sixteen year-old Stephanie Burton, whose family lost their home in Yellow Rock in the Blue Mountains, was presented with $8,500 from Richardson&Wrench.
Ms Burton had worked Saturdays at the Richardson&Wrench Penrith office for two years, and when the scale of the family’s loss became known, principal Catherine Matusewicz reached out to the network of 100 offices for help.
The donations came from across NSW and Queensland, with one office donating more than $3,000.
Richardson&Wrench executive director Andrew Cocks said the Burton family had suffered a terrible loss but had borne it with incredible stoicism.
“Stephanie and her family had only lived in their home for just over a year when the fires took away every possession they held dear,” said Mr Cocks. “There were many hundreds who suffered a similar loss, but as one of our own, it was Stephanie and her family we rallied to help.”
Mr Cocks said the response from the network had been immediate and generous: “Nobody questioned it; everybody simply wanted to help and for Stephanie, her brother Adam and parents Leanne and Scott to know they were part of the wider Richardson&Wrench family and that we care.”
The family plans to rebuild but in the meantime, is living in a one-room granny flat on the property that miraculously escaped damage.
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