Algoa 108 Winter Knights

Dr Whale from Herbert Hurd Primary School was very fast in getting back to us to say they admire what we are doing for the community & advised that her staff & pupils will do whatever they can in assisting us with the collection.A few days later we received a call from Dr Whale, who advised they had managed to collect quite a bit of clothing for our project this year.

By this point we had collected quite a lot of blankets, clothing, shoes, sanitary pads & non-perishable foods.

MORE.... We wanted MORE!!!

So we did it the 108 way & decided what better way to brave the cold, then to physically get cold….. We decided to host a Speedo-BraaiNight on 20th May, where we as 108 Members braved the Icey cold conditions & invited the public to a braai at our Club-house in Fernglen while we braai’d for them in our speedo’s – All we asked for was the public bring more clothing & blankets for us to be able to give out to those in need – What a jol was had by everybody who attended.

While us men were focusing on our collection, The Legs (Wives/ partners) of Round Table Algoa 108 decided they would also like to do a collection of Sanitary Pads for the homeless woman on the streets.This was the turning point in the project where we quickly realised we had hit the nail-on-the-head with all the clothing and blankets received from

Winter Knights Algoa 108

Now with our great collection done & dusted we realised this was going to be a bit of a mission to get all of these things out on the night of our hand-out.

Aha – Thinking out of the box again…..

One of our members then suggested that we should try to organise a truck for the hand-out which to our dismay actually happened. While we were busy having our monthly Project Meeting quick before the hand-out, ‘Vroom Vroom’, there this 8-Ton Cattle truck pulled in with one of our members behind the wheel. He was lucky enough to get the truck & diesel sponsored to us at no charge whatsoever from Joe Liddell at Lidco Livestock which was a lifesaver for us at the time.

We then packed the truck with +- R45 000 worth of clothing, sanitary pads, blankets and a HUGE pot of hot Samp & Beans for the hand-out on the streets of Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).We then all jumped aboard the truck at 9pm on 15th June & hit the streets towards Kabega Park looking for any vagrants hiding in any form of shelter they were able to find as the weather was quickly starting to turn cold & wet.

We then made our way down through to Newton Park where we managed to find quite a few people sleeping under trees, between buildings and even in cardboard boxes. We then managed to get into a few deep & dark corners down town in Central where the last of our stuff was then handed out to the homeless.

Needless to say, the smiles and gratefulness of these homeless people’s faces when they receive some attention, warm clothing, a blanket and some hot food is enough to shed a tear to any man.

I would like to thank every single member of Round Table Algoa 108 and their families for all the effort put into this amazing heartfelt project.

Also, a major thank you to each & every sponsorship who assisted us this year, without all of you this would not have been possible.

Yit

Shane Tait Round Table Algoa 108 Winter Knights Convenor