Many thanks to the efforts of the Midrand office staff, who raffled a beautiful Easter Basket to raise money for the Trust. In addition, an Easter Egg Hunt took place at the office. Much fun was had by all, and R8000 was raised for the Trust.

Congratulations to Cheryl Oakes, Maggie Meyer and Wade Govender, who won the Easter Egg Hunt. Congratulations to Isabel Zietsman, who won the draw for the basket. And thanks to Fred Sutherland for matching all funds raised by Golder employees!

Two of Golder’s suppliers recently made sizable donations to the Golder Trust for Orphans. 

Lucie Arsenault, President of Luz Design, Golder’s design agency, recently donated to the Golder Trust for Orphans.

Additionally, Talbot Marketing, who supplies Golder Canada with its “Golder Ware”, recently made a sizable donation to the Trust. Says Linda Mah, Talbot’s account representative for Golder, “We think it’s such a great thing that you are doing, we just wanted to show our support.”

Thanks to all the Golder employees and friends of Victor Milligan who donated to the Trust for Orphans in his memory after his passing in March, 2009.

Over $5000 USD was donated to the Trust for Orphans on Victor’s behalf by friends and Golder employees.

Our sincere thanks to Victor’s family for their support.

GAC Matches Contributions for a Total of $20,000 USD Raised!

Things on Hope Farm have been busy but generally going well in 2009 so far. Thanks to the Golder Trust for Orphans, we have been able to make some progress on the development of our farm and take care of more children and people in our local community as a result.

Our plans for this year are to continue with all we have been doing and carry on saying yes to as many children as are brought to us for care giving.

Donations from the Golder Trust for Orphans have helped us:

1. Purchase a quad that makes it easier for Andrew to get around the farm quickly. 
2. Purchase a cow that has allowed us to produce milk for our kids. We now have several cows!
3. Purchase the equipment we needed to raise chickens. We are now selling frozen chickens to local grocery stores and benefiting from the income.

All the children who we have brought to the farm over the past year are thriving. Bethany, who was brought to us last year, is doing very well (see photo 2) and we have begun to see real progress in the development of the more abused children as well.

It is time to start a preschool on the farm for the small children. Rae home-schools all the children and we now need to build a separate building for the small children with a safe play area. We are looking for someone to help Rae teach the little ones. So far we have managed to dig and concrete the foundations. We are also going to make our home bigger so we can care for more children.

Many thanks to all Golder employees for your support of the Golder Trust for Orphans. Your help is invaluable to us!

1 - Entrance to Hope Farm   2 - Bethany is thriving!   3 – A new playground where local kids can play safely!   4 – Hope Farm frozen chicken, ready for market!   5 – Angela Scott from Golder’s Pietermaritzburg office visits Hope Farm   6 – Golder Trust for Orphans Quad!