A LINK between Myrtleford and a tiny township in Ontario, Canada called Virgil has resulted in an extremely generous act of kindness from almost complete strangers.

The town, populated by about 3000 people, has been home to locally born Vanessa Rode (nee Lloyd) for 25 years and to her surprise, the Canadian locals wanted to help as if fire-affected Alpine Shire was in their own backyard.

“They televised a lot of it and a lot of Canadians don’t know the sheer size of Australia but because I’ve been there so long a lot of them knew where I was from and kept calling to see if my friends and family were okay,” Mrs Rode said to the Myrtleford Times on Monday.

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