Discipline turned to an act of kindness for Sean and Connor.
“What started out as my idea of punishment for my boys Sean and Connor escalated exponentially into the best gift they could ever give me as a mother,” said Mrs Susan Cockcroft.
“The boys were recently sentenced by me to four Saturdays of community service,” she said.
Sean and Connor’s sentence involved helping out at a soup kitchen at an informal settlement in Denver every Saturday.
“Every Saturday Colin, Glyn and Sylvia make soup and bread to give to the community of Denver” said Mrs Cockcroft.
The soup kitchen feeds about 200 children and adults from a chapel donated by the Bedfordview Methodist Church.
The boys were touched after one visit to the settlement where they saw the unfavourable conditions the residents of Denver lived in.
“For three days, Sean, who is a pupil at Jeppe High Preparatory School, sat outside his headmistress’ office to find out if he could make a request from the pupils at school for containers, old clothes and shoes to donate.
“He wanted to make a difference in these children’s lives. Ms Pearce was only too thrilled to have a meaningful charity drive. After the first request there were only a couple of bags collected which were taken to the settlement,” said Mrs Cockcroft.
After the first donation Sean wanted to do more for the Denver communities.
He wanted to motivate other pupils at school to bring more clothes to donate.
“I have no idea where it will end up but it is truly wonderful. We ran a new challenge at the school that we would reward the class that brought in the most jumble, with pizza for lunch.
“We ran the incentive for two weeks and collected 22 big black rubbish bags full of donated items. With one more day for collections we knew we could expect one more effort by the classes to beat the leading class, which had donated nine bags of goods,” said Mrs Cockcroft.
The school came together as classes were excited about the competition.
Two classes clearly took the lead with 28 bags of donated goods each.
“We had no idea the response would be so awesome. The numbers of bags from everyone just exploded. We filled a seven-metre trailer to the point where we had to tie the lid down.
“We also filled two 4x4s to the brim and a sedan boot and backseat overflowing,” said Mrs Cockcroft.
What started as punishment turned into a spirit of giving.
“The generosity shown by the families at Jeppe Prep is just overwhelming. I am so proud to be able to say my children go to that school,” said Mrs Cockcroft.
Over the weekend 120 shacks burnt down in the Denver informal settlement, leaving 120 families homeless.
“Things happen for a reason. Do not ever question your journey that you find yourself on. Our journey has just taken a turn. We have been asked to take all the bags we collected to the settlement,” said Mrs Cockcroft.
She also thanked the parents for helping in the donations and Ms Pearce for allowing the boys to run this project.
