Lake, Smit and Partners Inc.’s Heartfelt Mandela Day Contributions to Local Charities.

Lake, Smit and Partners Inc. proudly announces the heartfelt success of our Mandela Day Initiative, where we came together to make a meaningful difference in our communities. In honour of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela’s legacy, we dedicated our service across all our venues through this collection, spreading kindness and support to those in need.

Our campaign, which began on 27th June 2024, reached its inspiring conclusion on 18th July 2024. During this time, our ten venues and head office staff joined forces to donate items from the wish lists of various local charities. These items included food, detergents, clothing, toys, laundry essentials, cupcakes, and other treats. Our teams worked together in the true spirit of teamwork and generosity to ensure their chosen charities received the support they needed.

The following charities were the grateful recipients of our donations:

• St Thomas Home for Children
• Ethelbert Childrens Home
• Operation Bobbi Bear
• St Theresa’s Children’s Home
• John Dunn House
• Isaiah 54 Children’s Home
• Ukusa Kwamagasela Day Care

We extend our deepest gratitude to all our staff for their extraordinary effort and untiring commitment to this campaign. Your generosity and dedication have made a significant impact on the lives of those in need, embodying the true spirit of Mandela Day.

Lake, Smit and Partners Inc. Staff give back to Operation Bobbi Bear

Lake Smit’s very own Paula McKenzie and her close friend, who owns one of the horses at her stables, Jade Kruger, of Toti Ranch Stables in Amanzimtoti, recently held a stable yard fundraiser at Splash Waterworld in Amanzimtoti’s Main Beach to raise funds for the upkeep of the horses.

“We raised much more money than we expected to and wanted to use the funds to give back to the community in some valuable way. We thought of Operation Bobbi Bear, which is a human rights organisation committed to helping sexually abused children in Amanzimtoti. The organisation rescues and provides safe homes for abused children, works with the criminal justice system to prosecute perpetrators, educate individuals and communities, and much, much more. We decided that we would give back to the children who have been helped by Operation Bobbi Bear”, shared Paula.

“With this goal in mind, Jade and I were joined by a few other colleagues of mine from Lake, Smit and Partners Inc., namely, Mary-Jane Potgieter and Preleen Govender who joined us as we planned a fun-filled day for the children at my family-owned stable yard on Sunday, the 12th of December 2021”, Paula added.

The extra funds raised were used to purchase Christmas gifts for the children. The children were given a mini party set-up where they had a jumping castle, were given pony rides and the opportunity to interact with these gentle animals and play games in a safe and fun environment. They were also given boerewors rolls and juice for lunch, which was sponsored by Johan and Julie Kruger.

“Jade and I would like to thank my Lake, Smit and Partners Inc. colleagues, Mary-Jane Potgieter and Preleen Govender, as well as the team of girls who helped with pony rides, Rachel Dempsey, Amy Strydom and Julie Kruger, and not forgetting Marc Brazier and Johan Kruger who assisted with the braai,” said Paula.

We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also, we help others in order to work on ourselves.

Our annual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign see’s charities such as Reach for Recovery and Highway Hospice benefiting from our campaign. In support of Breast Cancer awareness month, we donate 10% of all mammography examination fees done in October to these dedicated organisations involved in the care and support of breast cancer patients. By sowing directly back into our community, we believe we are making a difference in the fight against Breast Cancer.

Our annual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign see’s charities such as Reach for Recovery and Highway Hospice benefiting from our campaign. In support of Breast Cancer awareness month, we donate 10% of all mammography examination fees done in October to these dedicated organisations involved in the care and support of breast cancer patients. By sowing directly back into our community, we believe we are making a difference in the fight against Breast Cancer.

Ensuring that young children develop into their full potential, we support TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education), an organisation devoted to early childhood development by offering children in KZN programmes and skills development that promote nutrition, building toys and encourage early learning through play.

We have partnered with TREE by identifying several ‘HUBS of EXCELLENCE’ where we set up gardens to encourage healthy living and promoting nutrition and crafts and toy making using recycled materials to encourage creativity and sustainability.

There are currently 4 TREE centres and 27 training sites across KZN, which support over 1400 Early Childhood Development (EDC) sites. To date, they have reached more than 52000 children, trained 1424 EDC practitioners and built 7 toy libraries in 2 years.