After two years of dedication, two siblings from America today had the opportunity to donate their special gift to a Bloemfontein Child Care Centre.
Leah Seep (11) from Leonardtown, Maryland, last year decided that she did not want birthday presents for her 10th birthday. Instead, she invited her friends to donate money to the benefit of a youth-care centre.
Her brother James followed suit and asked his friends to donate money for this cause for his seventh birthday in April.
When Leah turned 11 on 20 November she repeated her wish, and 16 friends gave her money instead of presents.
Inbetween the two also made bracelets and sold these, so their offering grew to $800.
Yesterday they flew with their mother, Eshter, and father, Dan, to Bloemfontein to come and visit their grandparents in Bloemfontein.
Just hours after the long flight to South Africa, the foursome visited the Therapéa Child and Youth Care Centre in Fichardtpark with Eshter’s mom, Anita Strydom. It is Anita who recommended Therapéa as an option when the children decided to collect money for a youth-care centre.
Therapéa recently took residence of a second house close to the Fichardtpark Primary School, where all the primary school children will be housed from 2025; with high school learners staying on at the first house close to the Fichardtpark High School.
Annemarie van Aswegen, social worker at Therapéa, received the dollars, which converted to Rand amounts to around R14 250.
“This was such a special gift,” Annemarie said, thanking the siblings for their donation.
The family spent some time with the girls from Therapéa today, before they leave on holiday to Cape Town with family members later this week, returning to spend Christmas in Bloemfontein.
