Umhlali pupils act early for Rotary

The Rotary Club of Ballito visited Umhlali Preparatory School recently to honour six pupils from grades four to seven who are involved in the Early Act Club.

The Early Act Club is a Rotary initiative to educate youngsters about social development and fund-raising and to involve them in local projects throughout the region.

Ballito Rotary president, John Coburn and president-elect, Ken Lever attended assembly where they presented principal Astra Russell with a certificate of recognition for the establishment of the Early Act Club at Umhlali. Rotary also presented the six children with badges identifying their roles in the club.

Convened by Early Act coordinator and teacher at the school, Shelly Neilson, the club now has 40 enthusiastic members. Children in the primary school were given an overview of the work Rotary International commits to throughout the world as a way of continuing to grow the Early Act Club.

Umhlali Prep’s Early Act Club, consisting of pupils aged between 10 and 13, have already raised about R10 000 for various children’s charities, through their cupcake drive, with two groups each raising R5 000 on Valentine’s Day earlier this year. More social work has been done by the young social crusaders at Summerhill House in Etete and through raising awareness, as well as collecting R1 000 in a ‘Purple Drive’ centered on epilepsy.

The six pupils elected to represent both their school and the Rotary Club as office bearers are Blessing Adeboye (president), Zoe Potgieter (first vice-president), Isabella McGill (second vice-president), Dillon Wernich (treasurer), Zara Sewraj (secretary) and Jack Bell (scribe).

The pupils are now part of 1.2 million members worldwide who reside in 203 different countries totaling 36 000 individual clubs and are both active in and committed to raising funds for those who need it the most.

“We wish to instill the interests of the community into our youth,” said Coburn, who said he is very impressed with the calibre of the Early Act Club at Umhlali and the children they have chosen to become office bearers.