Return to the Park - Rachel Moyes

Return to the Park: Success for the Second Time Round!

As you may already be aware, we, Balwearie High School, went on another 5k walk around the Beveridge Park to raise funds for Welcome Primary School in Heideveld, Cape Town. Following our last walk in 2013, we managed to raise £12,000; this allowed us to pay for a fully stocked library for the school, as well as pay the wages for two librarians for two years. We also paid for sports equipment, a sports coach and a drama teacher for the school.

This dramatically increased the resources that the poor, disadvantaged school had- allowing them to broaden the curriculum for their pupils and give them greater prospects for their future by improving their literacy and perhaps prompting them to further their education instead of lapsing into the poverty cycle.

This year we hope to raise lots more money so that we can offer the children at Welcome even more opportunities; they certainly deserve it. The pupils there are some of the most grateful you will surely ever meet.

The atmosphere on the day of our second walk was very positive, despite the poor weather. Many people made the effort to dress up (there were many onesies, and a few hotdogs…), and those who had been on the 2014 Cape Town trip wore the Welcome School polo tops they had been given as gifts.

There was music, too. Like in 2013, some of the Balwearie pupils played the bagpipes, and this year there was the addition of traditional African-style drumming to accompany in tribute to our linking school in Cape Town.

All in all it was a very successful and positive day full of enthusiasm from the walkers, and a credit to those, specifically Mr McGuckin, who organised it and helped out!

T.I.A.

Rachel Moyes.