What a weekend that was! After months of planning, scheming, arranging (and yes, as always a bit of infighting) the local version of World Cleanup Day turned out to be a triumph.
More than a thousand volunteers took part at various sections of the Braamfontein Spruit and tributaries to try to clean up the mess that littering and flooding inevitably brings down the rivers and streams.
All this as well as the impressive Environment Village at Delta Park in the suburb of Craighall Park was arranged and co-ordinated by our very own Babette Gallard and Paul Chinn, who had no time to rest on their laurels, but worked like slaves throughout the day.
One could say that success was more or less guaranteed from a couple who built a green maternity hospital in Kinshasa.
The Rotary Club of Johannesburg New Dawn tackled a stretch of the Braamfontein Spruit along with the Green Team from the security firm Community Active Protection (CAP), pupils from Parktown Girls and a few Parkview residents.
There was much talk about adopting that little stretch of the river that doesn't flow through concrete storm water troughs, as an ongoing project and jumping in, so to speak, every few months. There's a retaining wall built from very rusty petrol drums that needs replacing as well.
The two hardest working of the New Dawn team were without a doubt Carol Stier and Paul Kasango, ably assisted by the Green Team, who could potentially help us again. They filled five huge bags of debris within a few short hours and would probably have managed many more if there were bags available.
Another hard worker was club president Julian Nagy, whose speech was by all accounts one of the highlights of the Environment Village proceedings. Another highlight there was the National School of the Arts choir, especially with their rendition of the Carly Simon classic Let The River Run, very appropriate on the day.
There were a number of guests, both Rotary and other, chief amongst them District Governor Nominee George Senosha of the Rotary Club of Waterkloof in Pretoria, who will be DG in the Rotary year 2024/2025.
New Dawn was fittingly prominent all day, especially with our new big branded banners and gazebo arranged by Joan Sainsbury, the kind of paraphernalia that we will be able to put to good use on other occasions.
Meeting: New club member Rayana Edwards will be the speaker on Wednesday. She'll be talking about her charity projects Sari for Change.
Don't forget to bring along a few bottles for the Barrow of Booze, the main prize in the raffle for the Golf Day on Friday, 21 October. If booze is not your thing, a few bottles of interesting cool drinks will also do.
A Thought for the Week: Grief is the price we pay for love. - Queen Elizabeth II (1926 - 2022)
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