Good cause puts spring in participants’ step
Fun parade for charity anything but boring
Image: Sibongile Ngalwa
It was a heady combination of exercise, batons and torque on Saturday at non-profit company Black Pearl Foundation's spring parade.
Kicking off from the Nahoon Beach lifesaver's shack, the 5km parade began with a colourful procession led by the Lilyfontein Primary School drum majorettes with a motorcycle club, the Road Eagles, following closely behind.
After every kilometre walked, the 100-plus participants stopped for a quick session of aerobics, led by Singwa “Hercules” Silinga.
Clad in comfortable workout clothes and pink and white T-shirts made especially for the occasion, the walkers completed the route in high spirits as they did their bit for charity.
Organiser Vuyokazi Nkohla said the proceeds from the event would go towards building a brick structure for the Kuluyolo Day Care Centre, which was being run from a dilapidated shack in Ncerha Village 2.
The crèche caters for 16 children, who are five years or younger.
“It was a brilliant turnout, it was better than I ever expected,” Nkohla said.
“I really hope to make this parade into an annual event, targeting a different charity project each year.”
Crèche founder Nolitha Fiyane, who started the centre in 2017, expressed her gratitude to all the participants.
She said the centre started out in a small rented shack with just three children but thanks to Nkohla, it now had a number of mattresses for the children to sleep on, toys, colouring-in books and food.
“What is happening today is very exciting and I thank everyone for coming out to support us like this. This is a very big deal for us,” she said.
Participants described the day as a fun family outing.
“I didn't expect it to be so big and exciting. It’s absolutely great,” Amandla Somtsewu said.
Reah Telile said it was an “excellent” event.
“The turnout was great and the parade itself was far better than I expected.”
The walk was followed by a lucky draw, with prizes worth more than R10,000.
Prizes included a hotel voucher to the value of R7,260, food hampers from Nahoon SPAR and a spa voucher too.