Monday, February 6, 2012

A Grace Day Mission to Sparks Estate

12:39 AM | Posted by Gabrielle Wills | | Edit Post
I am very pleased to announce that a whole bunch of volunteers are about to descend upon Sparks Estate Secondary School on Saturday 25 February 2012 for a long overdue maintenance day! The maintenance team is meeting at 7.30am at Grace Family Church (GFC) moving onto Sparks Estate School and will be finished by 12.30pm.

GFC organises regular "missions" out into the local community where anyone can get the opportunity to make a difference where they can by just giving their time. Sparks Estate Secondary is very pleased to be a recipient of the volunteer entourage with their paint, buckets, pressure hosers and much more. The staff are so delighted at the prospect of some of their classes being painted for the first time since the school was built in the early 80s!

Planned interventions into Sparks Estate on that Saturday morning will include:
  • Painting 12 classrooms
  • Painting the school library as part of the school library project
  • Sanding down book shelves and varnishing
  • Electric Pressure hose cleaning the current school paving
  • Fixing broken door locks
For those volunteers coming to the day, bring along buckets, brooms, paint brushes, dirty clothes and electric pressure hose cleaners if you have! If friends want to get involved in adding to the list this would be great. So here are some suggestions for adding to the day:

Sick Room Project:
There is also an urgent need to revamp a very sad sick room that makes you feel more sick when you are in it than out! Here are some ways it can be improved:
Donate some cool coloured paint to repaint the sick room;
Donate a fan as the room is very very hot;
Donate a bunk bed and foam mattresses so that we can house more kids in the sick room rather than them having to ly on the floor!

Library Project:
Do you have books suitable for teenagers - both fiction and non-fiction? Bring them along to donate to the school library. If you have interesting paintings/posters that would appeal to teenagers and encourage learning we need to brighten up the walls. Or donate a TV for the "media" room.

Computer Project:
We are trying to setup a computer facility at the school because it is imperative that kids these days are computer literate. We are in need of some more machines or laptops to get this project moving forward. Also if you are IT savy we need some advice on a best solution for internet connection in both the library and computer room so that kids can access the world of online educational resources.

Other stuff:
There is so much that needs to be done at the school. The more classrooms we can paint the better. But we also need:

1) Paper realms to be donated to the school stationary room for printing of notes for students

2) White boards and white board pens to replace terrible old black boards

3) Interesting posters to brighten up dull classrooms

4) Ideas from participants as to how to improve the school in general

5) Door mats to stop dirt at the entrance of each classroom.

6) Fix broken windows in classrooms.

7) Volunteer to coach sport at Sparks Estate after school

8) Donate some fans for very hot and stuffy classrooms!

9) Contribute towards the paving of the school parking entrance so that teaching staff members do not have to start their day off with sand and mud.

10) Volunteer to teach basic computer lessons (i.e. how to navigate the basics of a computer) one afternoon a week after school or to offer sport activities one afternoon a week?

11) Donate some doors to replace broken doors in the school.

I am very excited about this and very grateful too. The school have been battling along on their own with little support for so long. To see people engaged and interested in what they do and caring for the school is truly the best gift we can give.

Directions to Sparks Estate:

The school is in 67 Baron Grove.

To get there is quite simple. If you are travelling southbound on Brickfield Road (now Felix Dlamini Rd), after what used to be called "Sparks Road" (now Moses Kotane Rd) take the second right into Kenilworth Rd.

Drive about 500m up the road taking the second left into Villa Rd. Then a quick right into Meadow Road. Baron Grove will come up very quickly on the left hand side. You can't miss the blue school on the corner. There is secure parking inside the school complex.

http://maps.google.co.za/maps?q=67+Baron+Grove&hl=en&ll=-29.839564,30.986037&spn=0.021368,0.027595&geocode=+&hnear=67+Baron+Grove,+Sparks,+Berea,+Durban+Metro,+KwaZulu-Natal+4091&t=m&z=15



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