On the 23 September 2017, a SPAR in Bela Bela burnt down and did something amazing for their employees. In the process, they inspired the ‘Good Things Guy’ team to do something amazing too.
Good Things Guy reported on what a SPAR did for 148 employees after it burnt down in December last year. It was a tragic story but one that sparked more than just an idea to look after the employees, it inspired us to take our story telling one step further.
On the 23 September 2017 the Superspar in Bela Bela burnt down in a tragic fire.
Carel Coetzee was left in a dire predicament where he no longer had work for the 148 employees of his SPAR, some who had worked at the store for over 18 years.
Instead of letting anyone go, he decided that he would continue paying the employees to do various charity projects around the city while the store was being rebuilt.
“The I AM SPAR project was born next to our burning store… we explained to our staff that although we have lost a building but we can still serve. We divided our staff into teams and they are currently working at the old age home, schools, hospitals and even at the local police station.”
Since then the staff members have collectively done more than 60 000 man hours of community service. They have painted schools, built churches (from the ground up), cultivated vegetable gardens for the poorer communities and even refurbished the hospital.
After publishing the story, the biggest conversation online was circulating around why that story not made the headlines of mass media? That got the Good Things Guy team thinking.
“Imagine if we could create a space where amazing South African stories could literally lift off the pages of our platform and transform into visual representations. These videos could live separately on social media platforms for users to share then with each other and the world.”
Thats when #GoodThingsTV was born… an idea to create regular video stories featuring amazing South Africans.
“The whole concept is to concentrate on the story. No presenters. Just the story… cause thats what really matters. Telling stories with video allows us the opportunity to reach a wider audience and we firmly believe this will resonate with our already established readers.
Shooting this pilot is the first step in story telling videos becoming a language of Good Things Guy and we are thrilled at the corporate interest already shown at this new addition to the Good Things Guy universe.”
Check out our first episode below & let us know what you think in the comments:
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