Tiny tots rally for rhinos
More than R14 000 was raised for orphaned rhinos by 120 pupils at Saturn Pre-Primary School in Westville.
THIS year Westville’s Saturn Pre-Primary School doubled its fundraising efforts to help save the country’s endangered rhinos.
The school collected more than R14 000, which will be donated to renowned author and conservationist, Lawrence Anthony’s Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage. Last year the school collected R7 500 for the plight of the rhino.
The Green Group teacher, Ange Lang, started the initiative last year: “I’m passionate about the bush and the rhino situation was worrying me. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do anything to help change the situation. At the end of the day, it’s our children that will live without rhinos if we don’t do something now. I wanted to create an ongoing awareness of the rhino’s plight.”
Throughout the year, the school encouraged children to take brown change to the school. Then, after the school’s concert in December, a teddy is auctioned to raise funds.
“This year we auctioned a rhino. I bought it at the beginning of the year and each child gets to take it home with them for a while. They then come back to school with the teddy and have to tell the school where they went, what they did and saw. Some children also bring back photos of where they took the teddy,” Ange said.
For Ange it was a fantastic year. She said the support from parents amazed her. The stuffed toy sold for R3500 at the auction this year. The rest of the R14 000 was made up of brown change collections and the sale of the school’s customised rhino stickers.
“It costs R10 000 a month to feed a baby rhino. It’s a lot of work and it’s an expensive undertaking. The orphanage will send us regular updates on how our baby rhino is doing,” she said.
