Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey has used his new platform, Wild Turkey with Thanks, to honour those who fought to help the wildlife and their communities in Australia during the bushfire crisis.
It has been revealed that the star reached out to three Australian families to personally thank them for their efforts in helping their communities during the catastrophe.
The star praised them for ‘pulling their bootstraps up’ to get through the emergency.
“There are certain people where it’s in their DNA – like Australians and like Texans, where I’m from – to go, ‘I’m not going to play the victim here, I’m not going to be victimised’,” he said.
One of the couples he chatted to, Dana and Sam Mitchell, helped rescue more than 600 koalas on Kangaroo Island in South Australia while the island was ravaged by flames.
McConaughey also spoke with Linda and Matthew Rudd, who kept their 100-year-old pub in the NSW town Batlow open and managed to save it from the fires, and Victorian Lin Baird, who has helped locals reconnect with nature on horseback in the town of Mount Bogong.
As the creative director for bourbon brand Wild Turkey, McConaughey has also announced that all proceeds from bottles sold during November and December will go towards Australia’s National Parks and Wildlife Service.