Western Cape Wineries
Charity Wine Event at the Two Oceans Aquarium
[Cape Town, South Africa] - On October the 9th,
2012, Christine Andrews from Western Cape Wineries wine club, held a charity
wine event at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town to help raise money to buy
educational resources for under-privileged children in Makapanstad.
Wine Club members, friends, family and the public were
invited to this event where they received a branded wine glass sponsored by
Sovereign with a heartfelt wine tag.
Guests could then try wine from thirteen participating
wineries including Du Toitskloof, Middlevlei, Beyerskloof, Domaine Des Dieux,
Waverley Hills, Groot Constantia, Creation, Overhex, Sumaridge, Muratie, Lord’s,
Holden Manz and Bizoe. The wineries were scattered throughout the aquarium
allowing the guests to try wine while walking through the aquarium.
To finish the evening off, canapés were served in the
predators section where the auction took place to raise money to buy
educational resources for the children in Makapanstad.
“There was a lot of support from B&B’s, wineries and
other companies this year” said Christine. Vouchers were donated by Brooklands
Guesthouse, Burkleigh Guesthouse, Elephant Hide Guest Lodge, Holden Manz Spa,
and all the wineries who participated in this event, all donated wine or
vouchers for the auction. Middlevlei donated a wine blending experience for 6
people, this went for around R1600.
“Since I was a little
kid I always wanted to help the children in Africa. I would see the sad stories
on TV and say to my mum, I want to help these children” said Christine. When Christine
moved to South Africa less than two years ago, she quickly became aware of the
poverty within the country. After four successful
Western Cape Winery blind wine tasting events held in Cape Town, she decided to
hold a charity wine event to help improve the lives of some of the less
fortunate people in SA. She said it was difficult to choose who to support. A
friend told her about her sister-in-law Julie Hadley, who had started up a
company to help her nanny she had as a child support her family in Makapanstad.
The company is called the heartfelt project. www.theheartfeltproject.com.
“I decided to support these children when I heard that Julie
had helped twelve ladies gain employment through the heartfelt project while
sacrificing an income for her own family” said Christine.
She found out that the children in Makapanstad don’t have
their own textbooks and not even the teachers have the latest curriculum to
teach the children. One day Julie told the story of how she asked a boy in
Makapanstad, if you could have one thing, what would it be? The boy said he
would want a dictionary.
All the money raised last year at the 2011 charity wine
event at the Two Oceans Aquarium was spent on educational resources. Christine
searched on gumtree weekly to find second hand textbooks, encyclopedias and
dictionaries. After eight months of collecting all the books in and around Cape
Town, she had finally bought over 300 textbooks, three dictionaries and three
sets of encyclopedias. The school was so grateful for the contribution they had
made.
A computer was also donated. It was decided that Charlene at
the Heartfelt Project would get the most value out of the computer, as she is now
able to do the marketing for the company, taking some of the load off Julie.
With the remaining money raised, Christine decided to set Charlene up with
internet, a printer, ink and paper. “It is amazing the difference this computer
has made to the people involved in the heartfelt project” said Christine.
This year Western Cape Wineries raised R26,000 from the
attendance of 110 people. “We were so happy with the number of people who
attended the event this year, the support the wineries gave and the outcome of
the auction. We can make such a difference to these children’s education with this
money” said Christine.
Christine plans on holding this event yearly to continue her
support for the children in Makapanstad and to help the community which Julie
is so selflessly helping. If you would like to join Christine’s wine club you
can send her a request on westerncapewineries@gmail.com
or follow her on Facebook on Western Cape Wineries.
No comments:
Post a Comment