The crew was so excited for the milestone
In case you missed it in our community spotlight this week, marking UNESCO World Literacy Day this past Friday, the Grand Bend Rotary Club sent off their 100th shipping container of school supplies to South Africa this week.
Chairman of the Rotary Global Literacy Committee Brian Hall, says that they fill the containers with just about everything you can imagine,
The containers contents are donated from groups like Avon Maitland District School Board, Bruce Power, Conestoga College in Kitchener, local hospitals and nursing homes, and private individuals.
There are also milk bag mats that local volunteers have been making by hand for years – they were expensive to ship, so they pack hundreds of them in every container, and use them as padding for the furniture.
The move was the brainchild of Helen White, pictured here with her husband Ken
That’s the kind of innovative thinking that got the program got started – Helen White had been on a trip to Africa, saw schools that had nothing, and saw things being tossed in at dumpster when a school near her home outside of Lucan, closed in 2009. She saw a perfect opportunity to partner with local school boards and businesses to take surplus material and make it useful again.
This container marks the 100th that they’ve shipped overseas,
It’s taken more than one Rotary Club to pull this off – they’ve partnered with other local rotaries to make it happen,
Brian Hall spearheads the Rotary’s school supplies initiative
The crew was all smiles – and who wouldn’t be when provide an opportunity for learning an entire world away?
Written by: B. Shakyaver