Thursday 8 November 2012

Keep Calm and Spread Good Cheer



If there is one thing I dislike more that being late, it's being lost. And yesterday I was well and truely lost...in Ottery, a suburb that seems to advocate no street signs and the same road names for multiple streets, differentiated only by the prefix "old" or "new." I'm now told by my in-the-know colleagues that the street signs fetch a high price and if you didn't grow up in the 'hood, you stand next to no chance of finding your destination in the ETA that Garmin estimates. Garmin...yes, that trusty old fellow would have been a rather useful aid to me, but feeling like a fully-fledged-Capetonian of late, I decided that I knew my way around enough to navigate on my own. Big mistake.

So after an hour of sweat, almost-tears, frustration and road works, I finally reached my destination - Christel House. I was there to attend the schools Year End Special Assembly and little did I know that I would be treated to a Glee-styled concert in additional to the normal prizegiving that we tend to snooze through. The learners put on the most incredible show and my mood was instantly cheered because of it.

The school was founded 10 years ago by Christel deHaan, well know in the tourism industry as an advocate of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. The learners are grouped into Houses names after their sister schools in USA, India, Mexico and Venezuela and when the house results were released it was clear to see that compitition is rife between the four groups!

Particularly touching was the R600 donation that 2 young girls (a donor's daughter and friend) gifted to the school after running a lemonade stand. When handing over the donation they "hoped that the school liked the money and bought something nice with it!" Seeing such a generous spirit being developed in kids so young makes you hope that this is habit is nurtured and grows, encouraging others who see it to follow suit. (Donate here)

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