Christmas may be the time for giving, but the Roodepoort community has proved that you can help someone any day of the year.
Thanks to the donations and helping hands from Lantern School, residents of Wilro Park Retirement Village, and a generous resident named Alicia, the Wilro Park Lions Club was able to spread Easter joy further than they ever expected. With all the help the Lions Club received they were able to visit 22 different schools, retirement homes, crèches and safe houses to hand out Easter gifts.
Lantern School managed to collect 7 548 Easter eggs for the Lions’ outreach through donations from learners. The school encouraged each of their learners to donate, with an exciting incentive for the class that donated the most. As a fun little reward for all the learners’ generosity, they were able to wear Easter-themed hats and bow ties on the last day of collections.
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A former teacher at the school, Roleen Hunter, is a member of the Lions Club and prior to her retirement from Lantern, she ran the school’s feeding scheme and Easter Egg Project. “The Lions Club has always supported Lantern’s welfare and school projects, so when they asked if we could collect eggs for them, we jumped at the opportunity to help,” said Joanne Rossouw and Altea van der Merwe, the school’s Welfare and Feeding Scheme coordinators.
Lantern conducts several community outreach projects, aiming to assist not only desperate learners in their school, but also various community feeding schemes and toiletry drives. The school said they hope to instil values of giving in their learners, to help them grow up with generous hearts because giving inspires love, joy and hope in a community.
Easter eggs weren’t the only donations the Lions’ beneficiaries received. The Knitting Angels at Wilro Park Retirement Home managed to knit an incredible 257 Easter Bunnies for the Lions Club to distribute. This team effort between community, school, and NPO made for one of the most successful Easter drives to date.
