Girl Guides from across the Western Cape, families and friends assembled at the Monte Vista Guides Hall in Monte Vista on Saturday 16 July for the Mandela Day Toy Drive to clean and donate toys for distribution to 17 different organisations.
The hall was a beehive of activity and families and friends from Milnerton, Bergvliet, Mitchells Plain, Bothasig, Rondebosch and Table View rolled up their sleeves in sorting and cleaning the toys. Afterwards the toys were put into boxes, ready for distribution.
“This year we decided to move away from food and focus on children. In the past we had the vetkoek drive where we set up a record, had Jars of Hope and collected non-perishable food for distribution. This year the Jars of Hope were driven by someone else and I am glad to say that we started that drive way back,” says Tanya Prinsloo, spokesperson for Cape West Girl Guides.
During the week before the toy drive, members and the public donated and collected toys, which ranged from dolls and teddies to cars, books and puzzles and the Saturday morning all the toys were checked to make sure they were not broken. All the puzzles were built to make sure all the pieces were in the box.
“The female members who were in charge of the cleaning, dressing, hair-brushing and helping to make the dolls look beautiful again, enjoyed being ‘children’ again. The same applied to the males who washed cars of all shapes and sizes, checked that all the wheels were on and nothing broken. A rocking chair was donated and one of the members glued a new handle to the chair and the horse was rocking away. Teddies were wiped down and if any holes were found, they were sewn up. We made it a priority to make sure that any and all toys donated were of a good quality,” Prinsloo says.
Toys were then sorted into boxes and every toy was counted.
“We were aiming for 900 toys, as Girl Guides Cape West Region turned 90 years old this year, but that goal was smashed out of the park and we collected a whopping 2 108 toys which were distributed to 17 different organisations. The recipients are: Steenberg Crèche Educare, Maitland Cottage Educare, Dalukhayo Pre-school in Langa, Bothasig Police Trauma Centre, Masiphumelele Creative Hub, Minter Garden Kids, Mitchells Plain, Leliebloem Childrens Home in Belgravia, Edge Church for Fisantekraal, CHOC/Red Cross Oncology, Home of Hope (Table View), Society Sisters, Little Toys Educare, Smiths Educare, Church Library in Mitchells Plain, Locals Helping Locals, 2HO (2 Help Others) and Nehemia Safe House in Monte Vista.
“We would like to thank all our supporters for their donations, help and being there for us whenever we do a community project. Next on the calendar for Girl Guides is our annual Cookie Season! So be sure to look out for cookies on sale at your local shopping centre!” she says.
