Locals spread Madiba cheer for the animals
WHITE RIVER - Lowvelders have had to adapt to the Covid-19 regulations and produced innovative ways of celebrating Nelson Mandela International Day on Saturday.
It was no different for the White River SPCA which has had to come up with new ways of raising money to keep the animals in its care fed. To this end, the SPCA hosted a five-kilometre Mandela Day Lockdown Run to raise funds.
Estelle de Villiers, the White River SPCA chairperson, said entrants could choose their start times between 08:00 and 15:00.
"Allowances were made for those who were unable to participate between those times due to work commitments and the hours were extended to Sunday morning," she said.
A number of Lowvelders supported the initiative and those who did not participate used their R100 registration fee as a donation towards Mandela Day and the White River SPCA.
"It was our first-ever virtual run and it was well accepted and people liked the idea. It is the going type of run at the moment and many people still continued making donations," De Villiers added. The Mandela Day Lockdown Run raised R4 500 which will go towards easing the lives of the organisation's animals.
In addition to the virtual run, the SPCA presents an annual book sale, which De Villiers mentioned had been experiencing a decline over the past few years. She hoped that this endeavour would help the organisation to build a new cattery as the existing one is falling apart.
"We used to receive new books from Exclusive Books, which made our book sale very popular and people flocked to it for new books. Over the past few years, we have accumulated lots of books and we also donate some of the non-sellers to schools," she added.
De Villiers stressed that all Covid-19 protocols were being adhered to during the book sale as the SPCA's normal fundraising efforts could not continue.
"Lockdown has impacted on us drastically as we have not been able to do our normal fundraisers. We are lucky that this book sale is held in our carport outside.
"Strict Covid-19 protocols are being adhered to and masks are worn by all volunteers and visitors," she concluded.