Welcome Walk - Robyn Taylor

We knew it would be hard to beat the £12,000 raised in the Welcome Walk 2013 but it was a challenge we were prepared to take on. To begin with we worked as a group to come up with good ideas on what could make the walk different and more exciting for all pupils and teacher of Balwearie involved. We decided that we would make the theme of the walk fancy dress and if you didn’t have anything to dress up as then pupils were to wear colours from the South African flag. As a group we decided to dress up as Hawaiian’s to start of the fancy dress theme.

 

On the 8^th of September, the morning of the walk, we all came into school extremely excited for the day ahead. We spent the morning going round the park on golf buggies setting up the designated 5k walk. Each point in the walk had teachers or some sixth year pupils standing at it so we could continue to encourage people during the walk. The walk began with people playing instruments such as the bongo drums and the bagpipes, this was a good way to mix the cultures of both Scotland and South Africa.

After seeing the difference that the great amount of money raised last year, I was truly motivated to try and raise as much as we could again this year. I was so grateful to be able to say that I was a part of it last year but also able to play such a huge part for the second year of the walk. As a class we tried to encourage people to get as many sponsors as they could so they were able to help make a change to Welcome Primary without having to travel to Africa. I really enjoyed the walk this year as I feel after having been to Cape Town the previous year and seeing the impact made first hand really motivated me to get other people more involved, as well as being able to impact Welcome Primary the walk was also a great opportunity to get the whole school together as one to make a positive change.