SMILE (St Mary’s Interactive Learning Experience) celebrated its 21st Birthday at St Mary’s DSG in Kloof on Tuesday, 25 September. The weather was perfect for the 96 children from Intakemazolo School and their hosts from St Mary’s.
As part of the celebrations, a cheque for R15 000 was donated to SMILE. These proceeds were generated from the St Mary’s Spring Fling event held at the school on Saturday, 8 September. The money will be used by SMILE to assist with transporting Intakemazolo learners to and from St Mary’s every Tuesday in order for them to participate in the SMILE English Oral Skills Programme.
This programme is run by two St Mary’s teachers and the St Mary’s Grade 11 learners.
The St Mary’s Grade 11s fundraised throughout the year and raised enough money to buy stationery packs and readers for all 256 Grade 5 learners at Intakemazolo School in Hammarsdale.
At the party, the My School Stationery packs and readers were handed over to the Grade 5 learners, along with goodie bags put together by the Spring Fling Committee. Each goodie bag contained a Futurelife sachet, Phendula tea, three packets of noodles, sweets, chips, fruit and a SIR Juice.
The highlights of the party were the massive SMILE birthday cake baked and iced by Kloof Village Mall SuperSPAR and Tom Hastings from Big Top Entertainment, who had the children and adults enthralled. Successful business owner Desmond Njapha, who had gone through the SMILE programme at St Mary’s in 1992, made a guest appearance and encouraged the learners to work hard at school.
A big thank you to the sponsors SPAR, Hookedup Motorsports, Toy Zone, My School Stationery, Chateau Gateaux, Selbys, Futurelife, Joekels Tea Packers, SIR Juice and Big Top Entertainment.