Just before the lockdown, 121 women walked 100km between two lighthouses to raise money for an educational charity, they recently did a virtual handover of R800,000!
Western Cape, South Africa (15 May 2020) – A group of women with a common purpose (121 to be exact), two lighthouses, a 4-day coastal walk, a charitable sponsor and a worthy cause is a recipe for success it seems in our now food-obsessed lockdown world. A handsome cheque of R800 000 was handed over virtually to the Butterfly Centre in Stanford last week. R100 000 was also donated to the Overstrand Hospice. No mean achievement raising nearly R 1 million in these tough times.
“We are so proud of all the ladies who worked so hard to raise this amount, and who also walked the incredible 100 km route with us, for the benefit of the community… to unselfishly bring about a good change in the community of the Overberg,” said Estelle van Niekerk, one of the impassioned organisers.
Lighthouse2Lighthouse (L2L) is a NPO that hosts an annual fundraising walk of over a 100 kilometres from Cape Agulhas to Danger Point lighthouses over a period of 4 days. The main purpose of the L2L Ladies’ Walk is to raise funds for local charities within the Overstrand Municipality.
Each year, women from across South Africa, and now also internationally, register to participate in this life-changing walk and to raise funds for the chosen charity. The walk takes place in March of every year. It took place from 12 to 15 March this year, fortuitously just before South Africa went into national lockdown, as planning for this event starts months and months ahead and it would have been a blow to organisers, sponsors and participants alike, had it not been able to happen.
This year’s event received a main sponsorship boost from SPAR Western Cape, as well as the SPAR Overberg Group. SPAR took care of the official t-shirts, tog-bags and a goody bag filled with SPAR products for the ladies to use during their hike, as well as the food and catering logistics en route.
This walk is also supported by various key members, as well as large and small businesses within the Overberg community, which meant that all proceeds went directly to the chosen charites for the L2L 2020 Ladies’ Walk.
Celebrity personality, ex SPAR Protea netball player, Vanes-Mari du Toit (Proudfoot), the L2L Ladies Walk ambassador, also participated in the walk. Her bubbly personality, along with her social conscience, added to the successful fundraising of this year’s event.
The Butterfly Centre in Stanford, the main beneficiary of the L2L 2020 Ladies Walk, had approached the NPO to help them build their new school and to enable them to reach out and help as many children and families as possible.
The centre’s main goal is to help young, challenged learners, who are not coping in the mainstream educational environment, due to global developmental delays and un-diagnosed placement on the autism spectrum, inter alia.
Learners range between the ages of 8 to16. They receive guidance classes directed at the level and speed to suit their individual abilities. Classes include reading, writing, mathematics, art, social interaction and life skills. They have shown tremendous growth in their reading ability, writing skills and social interactivity as a direct result of the one-on-one educational approach used at the Centre.