Grade 12s give up matric dance to help the Ivory Park community

The St John’s College Matric Dance Committee hosted a Matric Legacy Day to assist the Ivory Park community in lieu of a traditional matric dance.

According to the St John’s head of marketing and communication Jacqui Deeks, the committee began working on the matric dance in October last year. “They have raised the funds to be able to plan a memorable evening for the matrics but, unfortunately, the current circumstances prevent us from having a traditional matric dance. And so, the Matric Dance Committee created a Matric Legacy Day 2020 as an opportunity for the group to gather [with appropriate social distancing], spend time together and make lasting memories.”

She added that the matric group collaborated with the Kolisi Foundation, using the funds raised for the matric dance to buy food to pack into hampers for a school in need. These hampers will feed 128 families (one hamper per family per matric learner) for a month.

Deeks said, “The Kolisi Foundation matched our donation to feed these families for a second month. The Matric Dance Committee has undertaken further fundraising in the hope of being able to support these families for the third month. The Trevor Noah Foundation has added funding to this project to increase the number of food hampers to 150 for three months.”

COO of Kolisi Foundation, Joel Smith said the foundation has leveraged their pre-existing relationship with two of the country’s biggest food shops to allow St John’s to provide their (the foundation’s) extremely substantial food parcels to the families of Eqinisweni Secondary School.

Through the two shops the foundation facilitated the logistics of delivery of the food parcels and gave guidance to St John’s wherever needed to create a successful occasion. “The Kolisi Foundation identifies an opportunity for more privileged schools such as St Johns to ‘adopt’ less privileged schools in under resourced communities across South Africa to share the privilege in attempt to uplift these schools and better equip the scholars of these schools to give them the tools they need to reach their highest dreams,” Smith said.

The boys gathered at St John’s on 5 September for a wonderful afternoon of packing food parcels for Eqinisweni Secondary School in Ivory Park, Midrand and creating wonderful memories of their Grade 12 year at St John’s.

On 7 September, Sazi Bongwe and Alexander Sittmann of the committee, head of school Neal Burger, second prefect Daanyaal Ballim, Liam Litton the prefect responsible for traditions and heritage, and staff travelled to Eqinisweni Secondary School to hand over and distribute the food packages to the families.

“We were greeted with a warm welcome that affirmed our efforts and made our Legacy Day feel worthwhile,” said Sazi.

“We engaged with the school principal, the student leaders and some of the families who benefitted from the food parcels.”

The St John’s boys were able to hand over the 150 food parcels that will go a long way towards helping these families who have suffered financially as a result of the pandemic.

“We drove away with the sense that our efforts in planning the day contributed to a tangible impact on the lives of these families and that, most especially for the matrics of 2020, we took a step in constructing and leaving a truly noteworthy legacy,” concluded Sazi.