Education a Powerful Weapon

There were some sparks at the board meeting last week (we take our deliberations seriously) but it was nowhere near as much fun as the social meeting afterwards.
     This was well attended since there had been no meeting last Wednesday, it being the fifth Wednesday in October.
     Parkview Golf Club served up a glorious evening and even though we couldn't sit outside on the stoep overlooking the golf course because of their annual Bobby Locke Golf Day, we were made to feel welcome and the pizzas and wine were great.

Frayne Mathijs, Carol Stier, Paul Kasango, Robyn and Ian Widdop, myself, Jankees Sligcher, Judy Symons, Julian Nagy, Judy Sligcher, Graham Donet and Amina Frense waiting for the pizzas to arrive

      Apart from the normal report-back from committee chairs, the board meeting consisted mainly of a discussion of club efforts regarding education and the new sounds we hear from time to time regarding setting up a bursary/scholarship fund and research grants.

     Julian Nagy led the discussion and will be reporting back on Wednesday on these efforts and how they can be co-ordinated with our existing projects and fundraisers, mindful of Nelson Mandela's quote: Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

     These are important club matters and the outcome of these discussions will determine the direction in which we as a club will be moving for the next few years at least and probably for much longer than that.

Amina Frense with Ian and Robyn Widdop after the board meeting

Judy Symons, Frayne Mathijs and Graham Donet joined Julian Nagy after the board meeting

     Earlier on Friday Mike MacDonald, Graham Donet, Linda and I attended the annual Expro Toys for Joy lunch at Turffontein Race Course in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg.
     Expro was originally started to help football players who'd fallen on hard times, but is now aimed at sports organisations across the board.

     It is a charity lunch that attracts an audience of around 450 each year in Johannesburg (the annual lunch in Durban is attended by about 850 people) with enough sponsors to ensure that hundreds of thousands of rands are raised every year through the lunch, a raffle with a first prize of R10 000 cash and an auction.
     None of these are radical ideas but the scale on which it happens is enough to take your breath away.

Graham Donet, Linda and I and Mike Macdonald at the Turffontein lunch

     The potty-mouthed comedian Jo Parker was the MC and the main event was a Q & A session between the rugby commentator Hugh Bladen and the cricketer Graeme Pollock, which was most interesting. We unfortunately had to leave halfway through this session to get to Parkview on time.

     Each guest is asked to bring two new gift-wrapped toys along, one for a boy and one for a girl, which is then handed over to the Rotary Club of Fourways Main Reef, who distribute the toys to targeted children.
     The organisers reckon that over the years they have collected at least R3 million worth of toys in this way.

Paul Kasango having a chat with Pastor Mike Sunker, director of the 5Cees

   Continuing on the theme of education, five members attended the AGM of the Christ Church Christian Care Centre last night. The were Paul Kasango, Judy Symons, who does a lot of volunteer teaching work there, Frayne Mathijs, Graham Donet and myself.

     We left with a few ideas of where best we can help as a club, despite the 5Cees being in a fairly healthy financial position following a bequest of more than $500 000 from an American benefactor, although they at the same time lost one of their primary sources of ongoing donations following his death.

     The home is also losing Warwick Goosen, the education director, to a free private school in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

     Warwick introduced five matric pupils all graduating this year under his guidance, including the first boy matriculant in four years.

     Warwick says the new school has about 1800 pupils and that a new campus for girls will be opening next year. Funding, he says, comes mainly from Rotary International.

     In his annual report Pastor Mike Sunker, director of the 5Cees, thanked Warwick for the past three years of service.

     He also revealed that 5Cees is branching out to a new property in Bramley where 30 extra primary school children will be housed from next year. That is in addition to the 67 at the old hotel in Berea.

     A Thought for the Week: The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - Saint Augustine (354-430AD)