These past two weeks saw the team and their volunteers work themselves into a stupor at the two drop-offs in Pretoria. Drop-off started on the 24th October and officially ended on the 26th. Of course we received numerous late donations (for which we were incredibly thankful!) and still kept going until well into last week.
Pretoria East/Centurion and Pretoria North/Magalieskruin drop-offs received a total of nearly 8600 boxes and are happy to announce that all our children at facilities sourced earlier this year, will receive a box. Countrywide an astonishing 119 163 shoeboxes have been pledged....a heartwarming thought, when you look at the dire economic times we are currently living in. To think that there are still actually people out there who really care and would not mind spending something extra to make the life of one stranger just a tiny bit better during this coming festive season.
The pictures shown in the gallery above was taken at our Pretoria North/Magalieskruin venue. Have a look at the beautifully decorated boxes some of the kids can look forward to! Some of those boxes were literally bulging with wonderful things....the donors packed with so much thought and care, one can see that these were given from the heart.
My utmost thanks then to these donors for their kindness, to the volunteers for their time and hard work and the Pretoria committee for the endless and tireless support and their patience with an inexperienced SSB member like me. Special thanks to Margie Kostelac for her kind words and continuous support and last, but definitely not the least, to our venue managers...the NG church Magalieskruin; Hannelie de Beer and her team were invaluable. Your willingness to help with our cause and to make it possible for us to have a drop-off venue at all, as well as for your advice during the marketing process....thank you so very much.
In addition to the shoeboxes I personally received donations in the form of either goods or cash from all over; Annalie Lewis from LA Sport, Annette from the SA Reserve Bank, Carin Immelman, Henriette Crafford, Isabel le Roux, Hannelie de Beer, Mkateko and Pieter Halliday....these were all used to fill boxes so that Pretoria can reach its target. Some of the funds are still left over and will be used during the celebration period at the end of November (to purchase cake, cold drinks and snacks for the children). Thank you all very much.
So, still ahead then is the celebrations, as mentioned above. My first party is at Forever Angels Place of Safety on the 15th of November. From that day onwards nearly daily until the 30th, when I have my final celebration at My Kassie 2nd Chanz Foundation in Eersterust. I'm therefore calling on anyone interested to join me at these celebrations to contact me immediately (click to contact), or if you wish to donate cake/drinks/snacks... You can send an email by clicking here. Planning is already underway; I've secured a student to play Santa (please if you have a Santa suit that we can borrow...contact me before 10 Nov.)and cupcakes have been ordered, plus a few volunteers who helped us during drop-off said they'll come and help during the celebration period as well.
Watch this space for more updates on the celebrations!
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