Taking The 5Cees By Surprise

A cheque of R25 000 is not to be sneezed at; and that was what Pastor Mike Sunker was surprised with on Saturday.
     This happened because a Johannesburg based company was looking for a worthy cause with which to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday.

It's a whopper! Delon Ryan (left) of MDS and Pastor Mike Sunker present the giant cheque

     A search of the Internet brought the Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn's name up and the company, MDS Collivery, contacted the club. Paul Kasango and I went to visit them and the deal was struck.
     MDS, a web-based courier company, posted their target of R67 000 on Back-a-Buddy and although that target was not met, you can be sure the R25 582.66 plus clothes and other items from the 5Cees wish list (www.5cees.co.za) that was donated, will be put to good use.
     In accepting the cheque, Pastor Mike thanked MDS for selecting the 5Cees (Christ Church Christian Care Centre) as their beneficiary. He said they looked forward to a long partnership.
     MDS social media and marketing manager Lauren Dansky assured him it would be.

Spot the New Dawners ... centre stage is Paul, with Linda next to him, Jon peeking from behind and Sam to the right. With them are staffers from MDS

     Delon Ryan, National Business Manager of MDS, said the company had about 300 employees countrywide and had matched the money donated by their customers through Back-a-Buddy.
     He said the company saw the association with the 5Cees as the beginning of an ongoing relationship.
     Before the MDS contingent of about a dozen staff embers, plus a few children, arrived in Berea, Pastor Mike said the 5Cees would not be where it is without the help of Johannesburg New Dawn
     When the club's foundation officer Paul Kasango told him it was the good work the 5Cees was doing that gave the club "the fighting spirit" it needed to help, Sunker said it was a matter of "teamwork".
     "We can't do it by ourselves. We can only do it together," he said.
     At the moment the 5Cees is home to 50 children, some with HIV, some of them orphans, some from dysfunctional families and some from single parent families that cannot look after them.
     The home places much emphasis on educating the children and providing a stable home for them to live in.

Tanya Callow, customer care manager at MDS, chats to a schoolboy about his studies at the 5Cees on Saturday. She was there with her own son Joshua, who found that one of the boys had exactly the same duvet cover as him. Tanya expressed an interest in volunteering at the centre.

     

    

    The MDS contingent also had the opportunity to tour the 5Cees building, once an hotel on Louis Botha Avenue. They got to see the study centre, where the older children were working, and a couple of the dormitories where children were playing and preparing for lunch.
     The handing over of the cheque wasn't the only remarkable event of Saturday morning. During the recent blanket driveDebbie Smith was approached by a guy while she collected money for blankets. He wanted to know how he could help and went off on his way, never to be heard of again, or so we thought.
    Well, we thought wrong, because just as we were finishing up, along came an email saying that Coenraad Brönn had collected R14070 for a further 201 blankets. What a star!

The mysterious Coenraad Brönn hands over a blanket to Pastor Mike while Sam and Joan Donet look on

     Coenraad, who hails from Jeffrey's Bay in the Eastern Cape and Stellenbosch University, joined the handover party at the 5Cees on Saturday where Pastor Mike could thank him personally for their share of fifty blankets, which were handed out to the needy in Berea and Hillbrow.
     Coenraad then went to Woodside Sanctuary with Paul. Woodside also got 50 of his blankets. The balance were handed out to the homeless in Joubert Park last Monday as part of a Radio 2000 and Channel Africa initiative.
     That wraps up our blanket drive for the year, a most successful one thanks mainly to Sam Donet, who acted as club co-ordinator and made sure the funds were raised and the blankets got to their proper destination.
     With his fundraising skills (done mainly through his Facebook page) Coenraad would be an asset to any Rotary cub and now all we can hope for is that he likes getting up early on a Wednesday morning!

Joan donated two blankets she had crocheted herself, to Pastor Mike and
 his wife Renu, on Saturday. Here she is with Paul outside the 5Cees.

     As if that was not enough blankets for one week, Joan Donet also brought along two blankets that she had crocheted herself, and handed them over to Pastor Mike and his wife Renu, to say thank you for all the good work they are doing.
     More than 450 people are sleeping a bit warmer this week, the coldest of the winter, thanks to the generosity of ordinary people, and the organizational skills so typical of Rotary. Well done to everyone involved!
     Thanks to Carol and Linda for the extra reporting and photographs of Saturday's event.
     At the meeting last week we had Child Welfare South Africa on the breakfast menu and they gave some very interesting insights into the chronic problems of sexual exploitation of children and the very real danger of trafficking.

Dr Bennycharies Obayi, national operating officer of Child Welfare South Africa, New Dawn President Mike Vink, Mr Peter Cloete, national executive director of CWSA and foundation chair Paul Kasango of New Dawn after the Child Welfare talk

     Peter Cloete spoke about the SA Coalition For Our Children that was being set op between organizations such as CWSA and said they wanted very badly to partner Rotary in this effort. He himself is part of the Rotary family, and is a Paul Harris Fellow.
     He pointed out that South Africa has a state of the art Children's Act, but lacked in resources for proper implementation.
     Dates to remember: Don't let the cold put you off tomorrow and do come to the meeting. Even if it is a business meeting, we're being visited by two surprise guests.
     3 August: election day, and therefore no meeting. 17 August: DGs visit. 20 August: Club Assembly (new date). 30 September: Golf Day.
     A Thought for the Week:  What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803- 1882)