Rotary sends over 17,000 books to South Africa

Posted by Dave Green 
on Nov 18, 2014
 

On Saturday over 70 volunteers from area Rotary Clubs, the Y and Simcoe County District Board of Education joined together to load a container bound for South Africa. We loaded the container FULL of equipment and supplies to help with the education of elementary and secondary school students in the Mpumalanga District of South Africa.

Here is a condensed list of the goods that we packed and shipped in the container:

  • 700 boxes of books which is 17,500 books
  • 240 student desks
  • 7 teacher desks
  • 7 tables
  • 36 book shelves
  • 479 student chairs
  • 4 pianos
  • 9 screens/easels
  • 4 chalk boards
  • 1 sewing machine
  • 130 milk bag mats

Assortment of sports equipment, primary toys, and school supplies

The books were donated by generous members of the public and by Saunders Books. The equipment and supplies were from the Simcoe County District Board of Education. They were from schools that had been closed and the materials were not going to be used for our children here in Simcoe County. So rather than sending things to a landfill, everyone was happy to see them go to South Africa instead.

We want to celebrate and to thank all of the volunteers from the Rotaract Club of South Georgian Bay, the Rotary Clubs from Collingwood, Alliston, South Georgian Bay, Innisfil, Barrie Huronia, Grand Bend, Middleburg, South Africa and the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka. We also want to thank the Board for all their help too. Finally, there were hundreds of people who dropped off books at the YMCA.

It was a fun day and we are looking forward to sending two more containers in the spring, this time to Sierra Leone.