March News

The Graceland girls doing their thing

This month we were very excited to host our Fancy Hat Tea with the Queen (of Graceland). Over 100 ladies attended this wonderful event on the terrace of the Devon Valley Hotel, Stellenbosch. The sun smiled down on us and everyone who attended wore a beautiful, and sometimes unique, hat. Ambient music was provided by the girls from Wholehearted and we listened to addresses from Laura Collura, the Director of Education for Thembalitsha, Amanda Nortje, the funding manager and Elizabeth Solomons, the ‘Queen’ of Graceland. Mrs Berger, who owns Seaton Farm, the land that Graceland sits on, gave a moving speech about the history of Graceland and how she became involved with the project. We were fortunate enough to enjoy some tantalizing treats provided by the Devon Valley Hotel: yummy cakes and scones and delicate sandwiches. The hotel also presented us with a cheque for R11895 which are the profits from their Giving Room initiative! It is safe to say that the event was a huge success. Thank you so much to all those involved who made the day so special and particularly to the Devon Valley Hotel for providing the tasty tea party and the stunning venue for free. It’s people like you who make the difference.

To see more photos from the day visit our Facebook Page.

The preschoolers impressing

The winner of the most unusal hat.

February News

Well, we are surviving the summer heat thanks to our new covered outdoor area (and Rick and Eve Beeton). It really does make a difference to have somewhere to be outside in the shade. We have also got two volunteers who are doing community service from Gimnasium Gior. They are helping to paint the building so we are going to look very clean and fresh by the time they are done.

This month we have also been blessed by a lovely lady called Yvonne who has started volunteering with us every Monday to help us with focused sessions for the children’s gross motor skills. She is doing a fab job, thanks Yvonne!  We have also been invited on a course to learn more about teaching gross motor skills by the Clamber Club in Somerset West. It’s always great to have the opportunity to learn more. I look forward to telling you all about it in next month’s news.

Finally, please support our Fancy Hat Tea which is happening in a couple of weeks. See the invite below for further details.

January News

We are back open and running full steam after the summer holidays. We now have 51 children and we have our first ever set of twins so we are keeping very busy as you can imagine! Unfortunately we have a lot of ill children at the moment. There seems to be a few different viruses flying around and I don’t think the hot weather helps so please pray for their swift recovery.

The new shaded area in progress

We have to say a very big thank you to Rick and Eve Beeton who have donated the money for us to build a roof over the play area. It’s going provide some very welcome shade as the hot weather continues. Also thank you to those of you who donated toys and books over Christmas. It’s always great to have some fresh stimulation for the children and a change of things to play with. It helps keeps their minds and imaginations active.

October News

This month we just want thank the Lord for his grace and blessings over Graceland.  Here at Graceland we can see everyday how great the
Lord is for every one of us.

From this quarter we are going to get the children ready for their graduation which will be taking place on 30th November 2011. We are also starting with assessment to see if they are ready for Gr.R next year.

We had three excellent workshops to refresh our brains again. With the help of an occupational therapist Anoeska De Villiers and two students Simone and Sandi from Cape College.  We really want to say thank you to them for their help.

We also want to thank Helen and Jenifer from Texas for giving us fans for our classrooms for the summer and wall clocks and a DVD as well as some lovely dolls. Distell Winery from Stellenbosch also want to help us with Donations towards Graceland. I will tell you all that exciting news in the next newsletter!

Finally, thank you to Every Nation Church Students and Stellenbosch University, that made the day possible for the children to go to Tygerberg Zoo this month. The kids had a ball!

September News

Wow we had an amazing day this month. We had the official opening of our Library and Sick room!!

It was the culmination of a dream that began 5 months ago when I heard some startling statistics regarding literacy levels for primary school children in SA and the lack of access to books.

I have always believed that stories are such an important part of a child's life. They open up a whole new world, for language to develop, emotions to be experienced as well as the opportunity for nuturing to occur. Graceland is blessed to have a number of potential story tellers who visit every week in the form of Students from the University of Stellenbosch!!! These students have come on board and are beginning to read regularly to the children which is fantastic and very well received.

It is such a beautiful thing to see a child pickup a book and find pleasure in its pages. We have witnessed times when a group of children have been excitedly showing each other their books and other times when a child is just sitting quietly engrossed in the pictures of a story. Of course we still have some way to go regarding 'book etiquette' but we will get there!!

Elizabeth has some great ideas for incorporating the library into everyday use as well as looking at how it might benefit and bless Devon Valley in a wider sense in the future.

It is also wonderful to have somewhere for the children to go when they are feeling poorly at school. The new bunkbeds and bedding are superb as is the new vinyl on the floors in all the rooms. These come courtesy of a generous donation from Lewis stores. This library and Sick room has been a real team effort from not only within Graceland but the wider community also.

The opening gave us the opportunity to say a big thankyou to those who faithfully support Graceland, and we were honoured to have over 20 of them join us. Including Marilize from Devon Valley hotel, Ginny Swart, Katherine Berger, Louis Van Schalwyk, Caitlyn Keal and some of the Uni Students.

Following the cutting of the ribbon Katharine Berger read a wonderful story to the children who were enthralled. We then had coffee and cake on the stoep which was ably served by Grade 11 learners from the School of Hope who also baked and decorated some amazing cup cakes for the children.

Finally I came across a paragragh on a leaflet the other day which sums up what I feel about this project.

"If we can teach children to love stories, we can teach children to love reading. And the children who love reading will make this country's story one worth telling everywhere" (Nathalie Koenig 2011)

Zoe Lee, Volunteer

August News

Graceland has had a very blessed month!!

It started with us recieving a generous donation of R5000 from Lewis Stores. We were then treated to a visit from Mrs Van Schalckwyk from Devon Valley who brought with her some very tasty chocolate cupcakes for us all to enjoy.

We were also pleased to host a visit from His People Baxter Church who spent time with us getting to know what Graceland is about. It is always a pleasure to have the opportunity to share the testimony that is Graceland and it reminds us how far we have come and how faithful God has been to us.

Our regular monthly visit from the mobile clinic has been a real encouragement. The nurses are giving good reports on the children's health and all of them have gained weight. This is especially fantastic news for those who are underweight and have been recieving nutritional supplements (prescribed by the clinic) with their breakfast at Graceland. The clinic feels Graceland is doing a 'great job'.

One of our little learners has been out of school for 2 months following a bout of Swine flu. We are so thankful to the Lord that he is now fully recovered.

Our library project is nearing completion and we recieved a generous donation of R1000 towards books from Zoe's home Church in England. Zoe and Elizabeth will enjoy doing a bit of book shopping!!! We are hoping to have an 'official' opening next month so will post some pictures then.

This month has also brought us a wonderful volunteer from New Zealand via the Cayman Islands!! Jenny a primary school teacher spent 2 weeks beginning to teach some basic English. The children have taken to it really well and are trying out their newly accquired words!! We hope she enjoyed her time with us as much as we enjoyed having her.

Finally we would like to say a big thankyou to Hayley from Highmead Wine Estate who is donating R1000 per month to provide each child a sandwhich at lunchtime.

We continue to be humbled by the generosity of those near and far which enables us to serve the children and community of Devon Valley.

A big thankyou from us all x

June News

June is Happy Birthday month for 4 out of 5 of the staff so they were making full use of the 'Happy Birthday hat' Zoe bought back from the UK on her last trip home!! The children also love to wear the hat on their birthdays and enjoy the special feeling it brings.

The preparations for the library are fully underway. Leon (premises manager) and Zoe and Andy (long term volunteers from the UK) have been hard at work. We expect to be up and running when the children return after their school holidays.
We are hoping to have an 'official' opening ceremony so watch this space!!

We also have a lot of thank yous this month: We received plastic motorbikes and blankets donated by Mr. and Mrs. Van Schalkwyk via the Farm Association. Melissa and the folk at Woolworths donated some nutritious snacks and food. Ronel has donated a bed for the sick room. Seaton Farm donated a dreinerings klippe and Azalea Court provided us with some fresh soup and bread. We are so blessed by these items and they make a huge difference.