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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

President Charles on The Greatest Train Race!!!!

OPEN LETTER TO:

Organizing Committee, Rotarians, Sponsors, Volunteers, Visitors and Athletes

May I express my deep gratitude to all of you for your unselfish often thankless work. Those times when you wondered if it was all worth it or what you where doing.

Colleen and I had the privilege of traveling on the train and accompanying children from disadvantaged backgrounds and disabilities and were able to see the Interact youth sharing their time and making the trip a memorable occasion. Song and joy - what nation building?
When youth are committed we have such a future.

If there were problems, and yes there were, if you rose above them and smoothed the path, thank you. Should you have been at the receiving end of unhappiness, then remember the greater happiness and good for which we all were working. Please remember that it’s not you that it’s about but that we are reaching out and making a difference out there.

When hot sweaty athletes say thank you it was the best we have had, and when tired Rotarians from other clubs say "come on, we must celebrate this wonderful occasion. We are not going home but sharing in this great race" then

BUILDING COMMUNITIES BRIDGING CONTINENTS becomes a meaningful Rotary slogan.

To all of you who have made a difference. THANK YOU.

From the Middelburg Rotary Club and all our wonderful Rotarians we ask you to share in our joy and start preparing for 2011 the 25th Rotary’s Greatest Train Race.

Charles Deiner
President
Middelburg Rotary Club

Monday, August 23, 2010

ROTARY GREATEST TRAIN RACE 2010

The 2010 Rotary Greatest Train Race which was presented by the Rotary Clubs of Middelburg, Witbank, and Middelburg Cycad took place on 21 August 2010. More than 19 000 people entered into the different aspects of the race (Individual 29km runners, Individual 15km walkers, Running teams, walking teams). Unfortunately only about 14 000 people finished the race. This was perhaps due to the cold highveld morning and somewhat due to the fact that cut off times were imposed as the organisers were required to open the road at 13h00.

Notwithstanding some hiccups the Race was again a great success as a team building and community building event- the largest in Mpumalanga, and perhaps one of the largest in the country. We will only know during this week what funds will be available for distribution into the community, and we trust that the target of R 1 million was achieved.



One of the most heart rendering moments of the 2010 race was to see young Samantha ( a girl recovering from a muscular degenerative disease) in her wheelchair accompanied by her mother and sister, reliving 2 years of participation in the train race when she could run.

The title sponsors (Anglo-coal, BHP Billiton, Optimum and Shanduka) and all other sponsors and participants deserve a great thanks for their contribution to the success of the race.

In addition there was support to the organising Rotary Clubs by Rotarians from Pretoria-West, White River and Louis Trichardt who worked as marshall at the changeovers.
Well done to AG Jan Botha (Convenor) and the entire organising committee.
A special word of thanks needs to go to the unsung heroes of the train race. These include the teams from Collisen Electrical and Wolma who are responsible for the erection and dismantling of crowd barriers at the changeovers and the finish as well as the cleanup on the road, as well as all the people responsible for preparing the start and finish areas in the days before the event

Greatest Train Race - A runners point of view

NOREEN JORDAAN IS ALSO ONE OF THE VOLUNTEERS ON THE GTR ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Hi Everyone,

From a runners’ point of view (and a helper) I would like to show my appreciation for a tremendous ‘2010 Rotary Greatest Train Race’. I have been running the Train Race for some 20-odd years and this in my view was the best I have ever been privileged to take part in. And I am not alone in this view, as I questioned many a person along the way and also after the race, from the novice walker to the seasoned runner all agreed to it being such a well organised race. From start to finish the results of the actions that went into making it such a huge success was highly visible and just fantastic. On race morning the weather was pretty cold (not controlled by the organising committee) but other than that every aspect of the race ‘ran like clockwork’.

The water points were all excellent, well stocked with everything a runner needed plus the people manning the points were super friendly, helpful and just great.

I have never seen such well managed change over points, the control of the crowds was much appreciated! I think of all the race aspects (apart from the busses) this must be the most difficult to control but the most improved ever. Thank you. What a pleasure when one could run through without having to negotiate people pushing and shoving looking for their team members. This time it was delightful to see all the eager faces searching for their team mates from a secure distance. Marshalls were great in helping the teams find their team members.

The traffic on the road (or rather the lack of it!) was noticeable. In past years this was one of my biggest fears as busses, cars and bikes were either congested or tearing up and down just a few kilometres into the race. Children and novice walkers wander all over the road and I would watch with concern at the thought of an accident. But this year the road painted a completely different picture and the long snake of people could walk and run knowing they were safe.

Running into the finish tunnel was also well structured as was the entire finish area. What a huge responsibility making sure everyone gets the site they want but also having just so much to work with – well done Kim!

Going back to the beginning - the collation of entries and distribution of numbers is exceptional and very professionally handled. Being privileged this year in lending a hand at the marathon club I can now appreciate the hours of work that goes into capturing and sorting those thousands of entries. Mistakes made here would prove disastrous for the whole race. Computer programmes created for this job are excellent and certainly make the load somewhat lighter. Representatives from Eskom asked me to convey their appreciation to the Middelburg Marathon Club as over the past few years they have never experienced any problems with their entries or the collection thereof.

Last year it was an eye opener for me to learn the huge amount of teamwork that goes into the success of this race. The public, the sponsors and even those receiving the proceeds of your hard work have no idea what you put into this annual project. And to co-ordinate all of this is no easy task but Elsabé certainly manages to create order out of chaos with great skill! (kind assistance from the Chamber office staff is also brilliant)

I know there are certain things that may have gone wrong (and I’ll probably hear about them tomorrow), but whatever they may be just think this can only improve on next years event.

So from one runner that represents thousands of other runners and walkers I would just like to convey a big thank you to the entire organising committee together with their assistants and congratulate you all on a tremendously successful event.

Best regards

Noreen

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Interact at the Greatest Train Race

The Middelburg Interact club used the 2010 Rotary Greatest Train Race as a fundraiser. The Interacters were up from 05h00 in the morning to sell colddrinks, tea, coffee, milo and boerewors rolls to the more than 4000 participants who were waiting in the cold for theair teammates to hand over the baton. By 11h00 most of the stock was sold out and the most reliable informastion we have is that the Interacters will have more than R 6000,00 to spend on their projects. Well done!!!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

THE LOVE AND PEACE HOME BASED CARE – Sango Village (Laersdrift)




The Home Based Care was initiated three years ago by Sylvia Lukhele, a lady from the community. She noticed the dismal circumstances under which the people of the village lived and started to do something about it. She began by nursing patients and feeding aids orphans on a small scale. Her small zinc hut became a safe haven for the many vulnerable children and women of this rural community.
In 2008 the Love and Peace Home Based Care was registered as a non-profitable organization. This enabled her to appoint personnel to assist her in this essential task. Unfortunately the government is not always punctual in their payments to the organization and for long periods they are completely dependent on donations. The state subsidy is not sufficient to meet the ever increasing needs. Since 2008 the CMR has been involved with Sango Village and does foster parent selection and child court cases. They also attempt to address the social needs of the area by taking responsibility for the feeding scheme, nursery school, school clothes project, clothes and counseling.
On 6 July the Rotary Club of Middelburg donated 130 blankets to the orphaned and vulnerable children in this village.

Blankets to Karnallieland and the CMR


On Thurday 22 July, Rotarians Solly Mogola, Alta Baartman and Anja Chrissopolous had the privilege of handing out 80 blankets to needy disabled children and elderly identified by CMR and Karnallie Land. This was very sad to see the definite need for these blankets and the expressions of joy upon receipt of much needed blankets. It is a pity that we will never have enough to address these needs fully.
Karnallie Land Care centre was initiated by Marie – CMR, she identified that there is disabled children that is left home alone daily by their working parents. She then decided to collect these children daily and take care of them until the parents collect them after work. They do get one balanced cooked meal daily and the care givers try to keep them busy with painting, reading books etc. Marie has 4 volunteers assisting her with this huge responsibility to care for these children. The Rotary Club of Middelburg donated 20 blankets to them.
CMR Middelburg, the Rotary club of Middelburg delivered 60 blankets to them for their different project in Nazareth, Mhluzi, Avalon and Chromeville. These blankets will go to the neediest families. There were 2 families whose houses unfortunately burned down and Rotary could supply these most needed blankets at the coldest time of winter.

Shlanganani Home Care Centre – Crome Ville Mhluzi

This care centre takes care of 80 aids orphans and 69 disabled pensioners. When we visited the care centre, Eunise the centre manager showed us what they do on a daily bases. Disabled pensioners get pushed on wheelbarrows to the centre for a daily balanced cook meal.
The aids orphans ages range from 1 year to 18 years. They care for the toddlers daily in a chresh environment, the scholars’ gets help with home work and their school projects after school, and this is where they get the only meal for the day.
Rotarians Solly Mogola, Alta Baartman gave them 60 blankets on the Friday afternoon, when the cold struck again. Barloworld equipment donated 42 blankets which we delivered to them at the same time.
Willie Swanepoel Chairperson for this centre expressed his gratitude and thanks for the needed donation that Rotary Middelburg and Barloworld equipment gave to the centre. They called us the angels from above!
Alta