What an amazing community we are part of! The Rotary Club of Kenton on Sea would like to pay tribute to the many people in our small corner of the Eastern Cape who have been quietly working away at amazing projects all of which are intended to keep safe those who are most at risk from Covid 19. First of all, there’s a group of ladies who have been tirelessly making facemasks – to date 4915 of them! It won’t be long before it’s 5000. This project has been supported by donations of fabric, elastic and cash from both private and business donors. They have all been sanitized by our deeply caring doctor, Eleanor Galpin. She and her team have been towers of strength, providing health updates, counseling, correcting misinformation…. It’s a long list. The masks are sold at a very reasonable price and the money raised goes towards further community help projects.

The ratepayers associations of all our main centers – Bushman’s River, Boknes, Cannon Rocks, Kenton on Sea and the Alexandria Farmers’ Association members, – have been enormously active and instrumental in setting up and raising funds for food parcels, and then setting about the difficult task of delivering these to those most in need. This has had to happen overnight to avoid causing any upset in the wider community. Our local SAPS and security company, Hi-Tec, have played a significant role in making the deliveries possible. Just in the Kenton area the Rate Payers (private individuals, businesses, farmers – in fact everyone who has a spare rand or two – in some instances a lot more) have been extraordinarily generous in funding this huge need and, through KOSRA, have raised just short of R 550 000 to date. This has enabled the distribution so far of a total of 2347 parcels. Huge thanks must go to Sunshine Coast Spar, Alexandria SaveMore, Clover Milk, Coega Dairy/JustMilk, ChicorySA, Cape Eastern Livestock, Kat River Citrus Co-op, farmers and private donors who have donated meat and all sorts of other produce.

There is always the unwitting danger when naming names, that someone will be missed. If this is the case here, please accept the humblest of apologies from the writer hereof. It is completely unintentional. On behalf of the Rotary Club of Kenton on Sea, we extend our thanks and praise to every member of all our communities for their unstinting generosity towards those less fortunate than ourselves. We are humbled and uplifted to be a small but relevant part of the amazing community efforts. This is indeed a time for community to work with community and, above all, let’s make Kindness Contagious.

4 May 2020: A really huge round of applause to the Kat River Citrus Co-op in Fort Beaufort for the delivery today of a truck full of oranges. These will be bagged and included in the next delivery of food parcels through KOSRA and our Alexandria initiative. We are deeply grateful and humbled by the generosity of those who are supporting The Rotary Club of Kenton on Sea, and partners, in their efforts to help our communities. The strength and integrity of Rotary does it again!