The women from Golden Harvest Retirement Resort are involved in a major teddy bear project for the Teddy Bear Foundation.
According to the co-editor of the resort newsletter, Susan van Rensburg, one of the residents, Gordon Forester (who was also a member of the Lions Club International) started this project 18 years ago. At that stage, the Lions Club Krugersdorp was involved with a project – knitting teddy bears for the Teddy Bear Clinic.
“Gordon was curious where the teddies came from and was told they beg, borrow and steal them for the sake of the children. He noticed two of the women at Golden Harvest, Joan Taylor and Barbara Williams, were knitting all day and asked them if they would be prepared to knit teddy bears if he provided them with a pattern, wool, stuffing and accessories. They agreed and knitted two teddies each,” she said.
She added it did not end there but rather started a frenzy of clicking knitting needles among all Golden Harvest residents, producing lots of beautiful teddies, each uniquely dressed with the finest detail.
Susan said that Gordon went on holiday in the meantime to the Isle of Man, Guernsey and the UK, where he attended various Lions Club meetings. When he told them about the Krugersdorp Lions Club’s teddy bear project, they immediately put the word out and the UK women started knitting teddies for the Krugersdorp project.
“As import processes are a challenge in many countries, Gordon was told that knitted teddies were permitted to be imported without any trouble. DHL came to the party and agreed to import the crates of teddies, arrange customs clearance and deliver the crates to Krugersdorp, free of charge. The crates started rolling in fast with thousands of teddies which were sent to Golden Harvest where they were sewn together, stuffed, dressed and faces embroidered on,” Susan continued.
She said that the first teddy handover took place in 2006 when 756 teddies were donated to the Teddy Bear Foundation.
“The project is currently run by Alet Kurz and is ongoing in conjunction with the Lions Club. Last month, a total of 260 teddy bears were handed over to Ivan and Peggy du Plooy of the Krugersdorp Lions Club to be donated to the Teddy Bear Foundation. Ivan and Peggy presented Golden Harvest with eight fruit cakes from the Lions to be utilised as a fundraising initiative and expressed their gratitude towards this worthy course,” Susan concluded.
