94) The Children’s Foundation
I saw an advert in the local newspaper for people to work with “The Children’s Foundation”. I had never heard of the organization but wrote off for an interview anyway. I wanted to see what it was all about. I was asked to meet The Foundation’s representative at a coffee shop in town and when I got there found that there were about eleven or twelve other applicants waiting to meet with the lady in question. She arrived a little late full of apologies about the amount of traffic on the highway.
Her name was Bev and she ordered coffee for us all and set about explaining what the jobs she was offering would entail. “The Children’s Foundation” was a fund raising organization whose sole function was to collect money for children’s projects throughout South Africa. She was in charge of the section that held raffles of cars in different shopping centres all over the country. What she was looking for were honest and dependable people who would sell tickets for the cars. She explained that on most occasions a car would be in place for us to show the public the kind of car was being raffled. All one needed to do was to be friendly and chatty to the public because people generally supported any children’s charity and it was an added bonus for them to have a chance to win a lovely new car. Each seller would be paid commission only, so the more tickets one sold the more money one could make. I was rather concerned that the public would not like the idea that some of the money they spent on the raffle ticket would be paid out in commissions. Until then all the fundraising I had done was voluntary and I had not been paid anything. It seemed wrong to pay people to collect for charity. Bev explained the financial side of it. Although I don’t remember the actual figures as it was a long time ago I do remember that I could see that even with the commission payments to the sellers The Foundation was doing a lot better collecting money than the fund raising committee of Child Welfare that I was doing voluntary work with at the time was. I liked Bev a lot; she was a very extrovert woman with a very bubbly personality and a great sense of fun. She told us all not to make up our minds straight away but to think about it for a few days and then let her know.
On the way home I was pretty sure that I would not accept the offer. I had done so much fund raising for Child Welfare that people in the town associated me with that organization. I thought it might not be fair to be working and getting paid by another organization particularly one that had such a similar sounding name. I had told Shirley Suttle, the chairlady of the Child Welfare committee, that I answered and advert for the job and she just asked me to let her know about it after the interview. When I rang Shirley she said that she had also not heard of the organization but said that she would find out what she could about them. I was still not very keen to get involved but then got a telephone call from Bev. She asked me if I would be prepared to take on the job of supervising the Witbank part of the operation. She told me that she had thought that she would have to come from Johannesburg regularly to make sure that everything ran smoothly but after meeting me she was sure that I could do it for her. She needed someone to negotiate with the shopping centre managers for permission to use their stores to make sure that there was a car available for our displays. It would also entail keeping a roster of who was on duty, filling in if anyone could not do their allotted duty, collecting the ticket stubs and the money from the ticket sellers and to bank the money. She thought that as I had been involved in fund raising before that I was the most qualified to take on these tasks. When Shirley contacted me with the information she had found out about “The Foundation” it was all very positive. They had been going for a number of years and had raised many thousands of Rand for children’s charities of various kinds. I decided to take the job.
For our very first promotion Bev came down from Johannesburg to get us all started. She had arranged that we could park a car near the main entrance of the Pick and Pay store. She had organised with the local Ford dealer, East Vaal Ford, to deliver a car there the evening before but when we got there the car had not arrived so she rushed off to Ford, to see what the problem was. I don’t remember what they said but Bev got it all sorted out and we never had that problem again. If they said we could have a car it was always there on time. I think Bev could charm the birds out of the trees.
Raffling a car for charity was pretty new in Witbank in those days so it was a novelty and we did very well out of it. We had an enthusiastic group of sellers and for the most part they all pulled their weight but of course there were times when I could not get anyone to do ticket selling duties so I would have to do the selling myself. Once I got over the initial embarrassment it was quite fun. People were generally friendly and interested in our organization and would stop for a little chat or a joke.
After a few weeks Bev asked if Witbank Child Welfare had ever received a grant from The Foundation and I told her we hadn’t. She asked why we had never applied and explained the type of thing that The Foundation liked to fund. At that time Child Welfare was keen to employ another social worker but the government would only consent to pay the wages of the extra worker if Child Welfare would justify the need for the worker and pay her wages for her first year with them. Bev said that if we applied for a grant for these wages she was sure that it would be a very acceptable project for the Foundation to fund. I passed this information on to the Chairman of the main committee and he organised to make an application. A short while later the money was paid to Child Welfare and I was able to tell all the ticket sellers that they had benefited the children of Witbank with their efforts. They liked that and worked even harder to sell more tickets.
Bev was a real mad cap and had a hundred stories of “interesting” things she had done since she had left school. She had a very soft heart when it came to children, particularly those who had been abused or neglected. She had been a house mother in a children’s home for a while but I think that if she were to apply for such a position nowadays she would be turned down as unsuitable because her past would have been held against her. I am sure though that she was a very good housemother because she really thought that children deserved a fair chance in life. She was not soppy or sentimental about children but she knew that they often needed protection from the world around them.
Bev would often come to Witbank to collect the money and she would stay with us while there. I remember one evening when she had dinner with us she finished her meal by putting a slice of bread on her empty plate covering it with the left over gravy and eating it. I always think of Bev when I see anyone do that. She told me that she had met a man that she was rather keen on and hoped that their friendship was going to develop much further. She said that they had so much in common, he also liked to have bread and gravy at the end of his meal. I wondered then if this was sufficient to build a long-term relationship on but as I have lost touch with her I have no way of knowing if it proved a binding trait. I wonder if all these years later they are still together enjoying their bread and gravy or have they for the last seventeen or so years fought every evening because one got more of the gravy than the other one. Who can tell?
Her name was Bev and she ordered coffee for us all and set about explaining what the jobs she was offering would entail. “The Children’s Foundation” was a fund raising organization whose sole function was to collect money for children’s projects throughout South Africa. She was in charge of the section that held raffles of cars in different shopping centres all over the country. What she was looking for were honest and dependable people who would sell tickets for the cars. She explained that on most occasions a car would be in place for us to show the public the kind of car was being raffled. All one needed to do was to be friendly and chatty to the public because people generally supported any children’s charity and it was an added bonus for them to have a chance to win a lovely new car. Each seller would be paid commission only, so the more tickets one sold the more money one could make. I was rather concerned that the public would not like the idea that some of the money they spent on the raffle ticket would be paid out in commissions. Until then all the fundraising I had done was voluntary and I had not been paid anything. It seemed wrong to pay people to collect for charity. Bev explained the financial side of it. Although I don’t remember the actual figures as it was a long time ago I do remember that I could see that even with the commission payments to the sellers The Foundation was doing a lot better collecting money than the fund raising committee of Child Welfare that I was doing voluntary work with at the time was. I liked Bev a lot; she was a very extrovert woman with a very bubbly personality and a great sense of fun. She told us all not to make up our minds straight away but to think about it for a few days and then let her know.
On the way home I was pretty sure that I would not accept the offer. I had done so much fund raising for Child Welfare that people in the town associated me with that organization. I thought it might not be fair to be working and getting paid by another organization particularly one that had such a similar sounding name. I had told Shirley Suttle, the chairlady of the Child Welfare committee, that I answered and advert for the job and she just asked me to let her know about it after the interview. When I rang Shirley she said that she had also not heard of the organization but said that she would find out what she could about them. I was still not very keen to get involved but then got a telephone call from Bev. She asked me if I would be prepared to take on the job of supervising the Witbank part of the operation. She told me that she had thought that she would have to come from Johannesburg regularly to make sure that everything ran smoothly but after meeting me she was sure that I could do it for her. She needed someone to negotiate with the shopping centre managers for permission to use their stores to make sure that there was a car available for our displays. It would also entail keeping a roster of who was on duty, filling in if anyone could not do their allotted duty, collecting the ticket stubs and the money from the ticket sellers and to bank the money. She thought that as I had been involved in fund raising before that I was the most qualified to take on these tasks. When Shirley contacted me with the information she had found out about “The Foundation” it was all very positive. They had been going for a number of years and had raised many thousands of Rand for children’s charities of various kinds. I decided to take the job.
For our very first promotion Bev came down from Johannesburg to get us all started. She had arranged that we could park a car near the main entrance of the Pick and Pay store. She had organised with the local Ford dealer, East Vaal Ford, to deliver a car there the evening before but when we got there the car had not arrived so she rushed off to Ford, to see what the problem was. I don’t remember what they said but Bev got it all sorted out and we never had that problem again. If they said we could have a car it was always there on time. I think Bev could charm the birds out of the trees.
Raffling a car for charity was pretty new in Witbank in those days so it was a novelty and we did very well out of it. We had an enthusiastic group of sellers and for the most part they all pulled their weight but of course there were times when I could not get anyone to do ticket selling duties so I would have to do the selling myself. Once I got over the initial embarrassment it was quite fun. People were generally friendly and interested in our organization and would stop for a little chat or a joke.
After a few weeks Bev asked if Witbank Child Welfare had ever received a grant from The Foundation and I told her we hadn’t. She asked why we had never applied and explained the type of thing that The Foundation liked to fund. At that time Child Welfare was keen to employ another social worker but the government would only consent to pay the wages of the extra worker if Child Welfare would justify the need for the worker and pay her wages for her first year with them. Bev said that if we applied for a grant for these wages she was sure that it would be a very acceptable project for the Foundation to fund. I passed this information on to the Chairman of the main committee and he organised to make an application. A short while later the money was paid to Child Welfare and I was able to tell all the ticket sellers that they had benefited the children of Witbank with their efforts. They liked that and worked even harder to sell more tickets.
Bev was a real mad cap and had a hundred stories of “interesting” things she had done since she had left school. She had a very soft heart when it came to children, particularly those who had been abused or neglected. She had been a house mother in a children’s home for a while but I think that if she were to apply for such a position nowadays she would be turned down as unsuitable because her past would have been held against her. I am sure though that she was a very good housemother because she really thought that children deserved a fair chance in life. She was not soppy or sentimental about children but she knew that they often needed protection from the world around them.
Bev would often come to Witbank to collect the money and she would stay with us while there. I remember one evening when she had dinner with us she finished her meal by putting a slice of bread on her empty plate covering it with the left over gravy and eating it. I always think of Bev when I see anyone do that. She told me that she had met a man that she was rather keen on and hoped that their friendship was going to develop much further. She said that they had so much in common, he also liked to have bread and gravy at the end of his meal. I wondered then if this was sufficient to build a long-term relationship on but as I have lost touch with her I have no way of knowing if it proved a binding trait. I wonder if all these years later they are still together enjoying their bread and gravy or have they for the last seventeen or so years fought every evening because one got more of the gravy than the other one. Who can tell?
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