King Rotary ‘wind beneath wings with BPS donation
THE King William’s Town Rotary Club brought joy and an abundance of smiles on the faces of children when they handed over more than 50 pairs of shoes at the Breidbach Primary school (BPS) on Friday.
The donation was made at a special assembly attended by BPS principal, staff, governing chairperson, pupils and the Rotary club delegation.
Rotary president Dave Heathcote was accompanied by his successor, Denver Agram (who was elected to take over the presidency in June), Peter Dhaya, Nathan Govender and Rotary Anns Tracy Agram, Pritee Dhaya and Pam Govender.
Heathcote said the donation was made possible thanks to a successful fundraiser staged at the King Club last year.
“We staged an Eastern Evening in November last year and the funds were used to purchase these shoes.
“The school was identified by Rotarian Dudley van Heerden who is a local. He brought it to our attention after an appeal was made by the community that parents are struggling with the purchase of school shoes for their children,” Heathcote said.
“It’s very fulfilling when you see the appreciation on the faces of people, especially that of children, and it makes it all the more worthwhile to raise funds.”
President elect Agram said: “This is a motivation to other service clubs to follow with similar initiatives to bring change in making the world a much better place for all of us to live.”
An elated BPS principal Ivan Harry said the school is really blessed by the generous and kind contribution of the Rotarians.
“It all came unexpected and we are truly blessed by your generosity and kindness. Thank you so much Rotary Club,” said Harry, adding the kids were identified by his disciplinary committee.
Eleanore Harmse is an educator, as well as the head of discipline and uniform at the school, and she was over the moon with the donation.
She said it came at the perfect time as winter is looming and will contribute a lot to the kids’ well-being.
“It will help the kids in so many ways in terms of confidence for attending school, their self image and enthusiasm as well as their character to be proud learners. So for this we are grateful to the Rotary Club for this blessing,” said Harmse.
Her colleague Lydia Cramford added: “We are more than thankful and the Rotary Club is the wind beneath our wings with this generous contribution.”
Governing chairperson Deon Alexander added to the applause saying: “The donation of the shoes is the best gift for the right season. Poverty can cause learners to have poor concentration and lack self-confidence and we as the school should do as much as we can to assist them.
“The plight of our pupils should be different from what it used to be 30 years ago when we were still at school.”
He concluded by saying: “It is heartbreaking to see our pupils going to school bare-feet with no proper school shoes, it was a very emotional feeling to me to see the happiness and joy on our learners faces.
“On behalf of our parents I salute the King William’s Town Rotary Club to invest towards the education of our future leaders.”
