Bryanston High School has involved itself in a charitable project to give less fortunate children a happier Christmas.
In the Sandton Chronicle article, Christmas giving in spring, the Santa Shoebox Project was explained. This project encourages residents to pack a shoe box with Christmas gifts such as clothing and stationery for underprivileged children.
What started out as a simple class project with the aim of collecting two boxes for the Santa Shoebox Project’s 10th birthday, turned into something bigger than the staff at Bryanston High School could ever have imagined.
Bronwynne Byrne, head of life sciences and marketing at Bryanston High School, initiated this charity campaign at the school. “When we started this journey at the beginning of September, we hoped to collect 50 shoe boxes for the campaign. We had designed a system that each class, between grades 8 to 11 would be responsible for filling two shoe boxes,” said Byrne.
“Then pledges [to fill shoe boxes] opened on 1 September and we were overwhelmed by the response. Pupils and families flooded us with requests to pledge their own boxes.”
As explained in the aforementioned article, those who wish to fill a shoe box can choose a specific child of a specific age and gender and fill a shoe box with age-appropriate gifts. By choosing this child, the person makes a pledge to put the shoe box together.
The marketing co-ordinator at the school, Lauren Streng added, “The response was really something phenomenal. It just demonstrates, again, what superb families and people we have at the school.”
In the end, a total of 331 shoe boxes were pledged by the school. Some families pledged 20 to 25 boxes to complete, while others generously donated stationery and toiletries to fill 50 boxes and the Grade 12 pupils donated cash to help fill boxes. The project turned into a family and group effort.
On 28 October, the school loaded up cars with the 331 boxes and dropped them off at the Rosebank Union Church in Sandton.
Streng concluded, “Thank you for making this project so special to us! Your generosity has touched not only the lives of the children who will receive these boxes, but also the lives of the staff at Bryanston High School, who have been amazed by the kindness, love and genuine care you have displayed. You are all amazing and we are so proud to have you as part of the true blue family.”
