Donation fit for starting a school year

KNYSNA NEWS - After being asked for help by their domestic worker at home, owners of a physical fitness centre in Knysna called on their members to take part in a drive to collect school supplies for donation.

Elmo Scholtz and Marius Barnard said when their domestic worker asked them for a loan to buy school supplies for her child, "we knew we just couldn't give her a loan, and it would be better if we gave her the supplies instead".

Moved by her gratitude, they decided to hold a larger-scale collection drive through the members at their gym.

"There are just so many children out there whose families are unable to afford the school supplies needed, so we wanted to step in and do our part in helping any way we could," Barnard said.

And thus their back-to-school collection drive at the gym was born, asking members to bring along stationery they could donate, with the aim of completing the drive by the end of February.

"We gave ourselves just under two months to collect the stationery, but the response from our members was amazing," Scholtz said.

After only a month they were able to fill the designated container with donations of brand new stationery supplies, and Scholtz and Barnard set off for the recipient of their donation, Concordia Primary School.

"This means a lot to us," said school principal Thinus Opperman upon receiving the goods, "we are always in need of stationery for our students, as many families do not have the financial abilities to buy stationery."

Even though this collection drive was aimed at school supplies, Scholtz and Barnard said there will be more to come in the year ahead aimed at collecting a variety of things, as they aim to make a difference in communities that need it most.

Elmo Scholtz and Marius Barnard with the learners from Concordia Primary. Photo: Blake Linder