Ethembeni School

I want to take a few moments to talk about Ethembeni School.

Established in 1984, Ethembeni School serves 300 physically disabled and visually impaired children from all over Kwazulu-Natal, Kingdom of the Zulu (South Africa), educating them to reach their highest potential and to become independent and responsible citizens of the community.

The name Ethembeni means “Place of Hope” and the motto Phila Ufunde – Live and Learn. At Ethembeni 300 beautiful children live, learn, and give us joy and hope.

At Fleet Feet Sports we sell Balega socks, the best socks I have put on by the way. Balega sports charitiable efforts for this school. When I learned this, I started to do some research about the school. Most of you do not know in my younger college years I worked with disabled people. It is such an amazing experience to work with this population.

Our stores are selling bracelets and necklaces made by the kids. The money raised is to help the school buy a bus. While I think that is a great idea, I had a different idea.

It costs $1,000 to sponsor a child in the school for a year. The money pays for tuition, supplies, room and board, and medical services. Since I work in a running store, with runner, why not get everyone to dedicate a race to raising the money so a store could sponsor a child. My manager loved the idea, and took it to the general management. They loved the idea as well.

There is a change to the plan though. We get free registrations to various races in the area, so the money which would have gone to pay for a runner's registration will go into a fund, so each of the three stores can sponsor a child. We are also proposing a Balega day, where proceeds from the sales of socks on one day would go towards this fund.

I am very excited about this. Earlier I wrote about running with a noble purpose. I really see this effort as part of that. I am glad Fleet Feet Sports is going to participate.

For more information on the school go to - http://www.ethembenischool.org/

:-)Charlie