The count-down to Mandela Day
Mandela Day is just around the corner
Mandela Day is a mere 11 days away! We are excited and a little nervous about the enormous scale of our Madiba mosaic. Over the last few weeks we have been organising, practising, packing and inviting at a frenzied pace. To the outside onlooker it may seem rather frantic, but at LEAP we always pull together amazing events (usually with shoe-string resources) filled with energy and team-spirit. On the last day of the school term, the choir gave us a sneak preview in the outdoor quad when they did a powerful performance of a few of the songs they’ll be singing for the mosaic build. It was inspiring and motivating.
We have been very fortunate as a number of donors have been extremely generous with their resources to support Mandela Day 2016. Indigo Brands – who supply Yardley, Rimmel, Sally Hansen and other well-known cosmetic and fragrance brands – are sponsoring 438 snack packs for the LEAP students who will be performing and working at the event. They are also joining us on the day to help build the mosaic. As this goes online, it’s just been confirmed that Rhodes Food Group will donate cans of food to be used in the building of the Madiba mosaic.
In our relentless push to make sure everything is on track for this special event – with the occasional break into hysterical crying – we need to take heed of the lunch bag message to just take a moment to ‘keep calm and have lunch’ and remember that we are answering Madiba’s call for every South African to contribute to social justice in our nation. We hope that LEAP Science and Maths Schools, in bringing together volunteers for Mandela Day but more importantly through our work in education development, honours Nelson Mandela’s intentions.
