A Letter from Lorraine Cockrell and Tanya Harford speaks to us this week.

Lorraine Cockrell of The Slovo Centre of Excellence was our speaker last week and she sent us a letter of thanks from which this is an excerpt:

I have to commend your club on the warmth of reception I experienced, and the sincere interest expressed by those I was able to speak to afterwards. I missed chatting to some whom I would have loved to learn more from, viz. the gentleman who runs the Woodside Sanctuary, who spoke about the Teddy Bears he received for his children.

Please ask your members not to hesitate to email me for exchange of ideas, or for any contributions they may wish to make, specifically in coaching/assisting me managerially, as much help needed in this regard.

I was most appreciative to receive a call from Ms Eleanor Hough of McCauley House School. She very graciously donated some feeding products called "Vita Meal" 25 nutrient enriched pre cooked cereal, similar to e'Pap (but much more expensive) for the children of the SCE Project. This was valued at approx. R2500-00, and instead of her utilizing it for her school children, she felt that our children needed it more, and hence made the decision to donate it to me. What a kind gesture that was, we are so grateful.

Her contact person for this then contacted me, and this lady is also going to try and see how she can assist me with some necessary "in kind" donations. We are going to meet soon, to discuss further in this regard. In the meantime, this contact person, managed to get a promise for a donation of "toys" for the project. This will come in so handy, as we are looking to establishing our own "Toy Library", so that we can have some stimulating activities for the little toddlers at the informal crèche I spoke of.

We are working in conjunction with an NGO called "Wozo'bona" (which means come and see). They are in the process of establishing a "Come and Play" Center in the Brixton Recreation Center where we are hoping to make our interim home. I would then ensure that somehow we get the crèche toddlers to come to the Come and Play Center every alternate day for an hour or two, just to give them a change of environment, to offer them some supervised play stimulation. So this toy donation may come in real handy as we make time to play with the little ones.

Our Speaker this week is Tanya Harford whose advice we are seeking on the development of a Sophiatown Marathon.

Following her retirement from the Women's International Tennis Tour, and a brief stint at AJAY (Nike and Wilson), Tanya began building Harford Sports Promotions. Nearly twenty years later, she has been involved in a host of events, including large music concerts, International Polo events, and two of the world largest events, the Discovery 702 Walk the Talk (the largest mass participation event in South Africa, Africa and top 10 in the world!) and the Pick n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge (the second largest timed cycle event in the world).

Founder and Managing Director – Harford Sports Promotions

International Special Events Society (ISES) – Certificate of Merit

Professional tennis player on International Women’s Circuit:1976 - 1983

1981: SA Singles Champion

1981: Career best with world ranking of 31 in Women’s Singles

End of 1981: No.2 Doubles player in the world

Other titles for 1981: The Swiss Open Doubles, The Italian Open Doubles, The German Open Doubles, The French Open Doubles (Grand Slam Title), The Wimbledon Double Semi-Finals

Co-chair 2010 Jo’burg Gay Games Bid Committee

I have just come back from Discon, hence the lateness of this blog, and I will give a brief verbal report on Wednesday.

The video is Judy Collins. I reckon she was the best American female folk singer of the 60's!