Thanks to the generosity and bravery of swimmers far and wide, a massive R30,000 was raised for Estcourt Animal Shelter and Khetani Animal Shelter (Winterton).

Scores of people pledged their support for this year’s ‘virtual’ Polar Bear Swim that was held on June 20.
Swimmers photographed or videoed their swim, and it was uploaded to the Polar Bear Swim Facebook Page.

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Great prizes were awarded to the entrants with the most number of ‘likes’ on their photo. Last Friday, the organising team, headed this year by Belinda Espag, made the much-anticipated announcement of the total amount raised on the Facebook page.

100% of the funds raised will go to the animal shelters.

“The Polar Bear Swim was a huge success. We are blessed to have been supported by so many caring people. I believe the R30,000 we collected is a new record. People enjoyed participating and forgetting about everyday challenges. Thank you for all the support. Khetani Animal Shelter, as well as Estcourt Animal Shelter, will receive R15,000,” said Ms Espag.

For Khetani Animal Shelter, the funds will be used to prevent unnecessary suffering and make vet services available to the poorest of the poor.

“Funds received are used for emergency treatments (injured animals), food distribution as required, vet costs for SASSA pensioners, sterilizations (main aim) and euthanasia of unwanted or old pets,” said Judy van der Westhuizen from Khetani Animal Shelter.

Candice Hunter-Smith from Estcourt Animal Shelter said, “The members of Estcourt Animal Shelter and Furry Friends would like to extend a huge thank you to Belinda Espag and her team for the amazing outcome of the Polar Bear Challenge! The very generous amount of R15,000 was raised for Estcourt Animal Shelter to help towards improving the dog play areas and running of the shelter. The shelter has been desperately trying to repair the play areas and make them a safe and spacious place for our dogs to stretch their legs. Now we hope this will be possible with the money raised from the Polar Bear Challenge. For all the awesome people who took part in the challenge, we thank you very much, as well as the extremely generous prizes donated by many different companies. It’s this kind of community involvement that makes the lives of our furry friends easier and safer.”

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