One volunteer is worth more than an army
SUNDOWNER – Beanies for Beings' celebrates their success streak this passing year.
Beanies for Beings strives to assist the community with one deed of kindness at a time.
Their outreach is donation based and they request specific donations from the general public. Based on what they receive, they assist those most in need who get very little or no funding or assistance.
They uplift crèches, schools, informal settlements, families, animal shelters and old age homes. They also run a knitting and crochet group where they make items such as blankets, beanies, jerseys and loads more which they distribute to those in need.
At the beginning of this year, they had a successful stationery drive for underprivileged crèches, primary schools and high schools, assisting 700 children with stationery.
They also collected and distributed 2 750 educational and reading books to local crèches, primary schools and high schools for Mandela Day.
During Breast Cancer month they knitted and crocheted blankets and handed them over to the Breast Cancer Clinic at Helen Joseph Hospital.
One of their most disappointing moments was when they were invited to do a distribution for 100 youngsters. They packed for 150 children, just to be safe, but more than 300 youngsters arrived. They had to turn the remaining youngsters away.
Megan Botha the founder of Beanies for Beings spoke about some of the people involved in the organisation.
“Eugene Aldridge, a very humble, quiet gentlemen who has a heart of gold and shows compassion to those in need, is a volunteer who acts as our delivery guy. He also acts as my ‘bodyguard’ when I go to areas that are considered unsafe. We would be lost without him.”
She added, “I also want to give a shout-out to Ana Rimmer – our shining star in the marketing and social media department, knitter supreme and my right-hand lady.”
Botha said that if people wanted to contribute, they would appreciate some non-perishable food, toiletries and stationary and that they hope to still be blessed by the caring and generous residents in the communities in order to support the underprivileged for next year.
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