The creation of Celebrate Life SA started in August 2005 when I decided to put a team of ordinary ladies together to climb Mnt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and raise a Million Rand for Hospice. After much fundraising, we were on our way and achieved both personal experiences and a channel in which to help Hospice. The greatest thing we did was put Hospice on the map and change the perception that so many people had of Hospice. As none of the girls on the team had ever had any experience with much exercise, let alone climbing the largest free standing mountain in the world, each and every one of us grew in ourselves from this awesome experience. So apart from the fund raising, I took these ladies out of their comfort zones and they were left with a feeling of great achievement and fulfilment.
I thought that my fundraising days were over due to the amount of work it takes, but in 2011, I was watching a programme on Carte Blanche about the Afghan soldiers running the Lewa Marathon in Kenya and how they achieved this on crutches, in wheelchairs etc and it tugged at my heart strings! Rhino’s were coming to the fore in the news with the poaching and horrendous hacking of their horns and I decided it was time to help with this cause. I chose the Tusk Trust as our cause as they have been established for 20 years and support the whole of Africa in projects for the rhino and elephants, rural settlement and education. It seemed the sensible route to go as all these factors are interlinked with saving our heritage in Africa. Prince William is the Royal Patron and is passionate about Africa.
And so, the next journey began. I coerced 10 more ladies to come on this fundraiser with me and we started our fundraising for Tusk. Once again, the ladies were not runners and committed to running the 21km marathon ( one of the toughest in the world) through the Kenyan bush, to raise awareness of the plight of rhino’s and help get to our target of a Million Rand for the Tusk Trust.
We are half way there and have many fundraisers planned in the future to get to this target. We are hoping to achieve this by March 2013.
The company has just been registered as a Non Profit Organisation, – Reg No:2012/15/298/08 and is registered under the name C.L.S.A. GLOBAL
Lara Plumtree and I are directors of this company and we hope to grow it into a worthy Non Profit Organisation. We will not always be supporting Tusk and the rhino project but will take on different projects that are pertinent at the time.
