There are just six days left to enter the annual SPAR Daily Dispatch 2022 Fun Run.
Families or friends are invited to run or walk from the Orient pools at 9am on Sunday October 16.
The official beneficiary of the SPAR Daily Dispatch Fun Run is the Sweethearts Foundation, which donates wheelchairs to disabled people in East London.
The foundation was established on February 14 2013, when its first wheelchair was handed over to Dora Williams, and since then it has handed out 498 bespoke wheelchairs.
Area co-ordinator Yvonne Pearce said: “The Sweethearts Foundation is a national 100% non-profit, community-driven, volunteer-based organisation.
“All our incoming funds are allocated purely to giving the gift of movement.
“Our volunteers, sweetly named ‘sweethearts’, range from everyday volunteers to high-ranking individuals who juggle work, family and helping others.”
The Sweethearts Foundation believes in leaving behind a more Earth-friendly environment and that a wheelchair should be recognised as a basic human right and anyone who needs one should have it.
Pearce said: “With the help of our volunteers, significant amounts of bread tags and plastic bottle tops are collected and then recycled by local recycling companies.
“The recycling company pays the Sweethearts Foundation for these collections.
“To keep things fair and equal for everyone who needs our help, we pool all collections from around the country and whatever funding is generated is spent on manufacturing a wheelchair for the beneficiary at the top of our waiting list.”
She said the important rule was that the foundation collected only bottle tops with the recycling number 2 or 5 on the top.
“Coca-Cola, milk bottles, water bottles, cooldrink bottles and the like are all acceptable.
“To take it one step further, even the pull-up lids from Energade and Pump water bottles can be collected, but we cannot take the clear top that fits over the mouthpiece.
“A standard wheelchair is funded through 1,750kg of bottle tops, or 350kg of bread tags.
“Most times, our beneficiaries require something more specialised so the numbers are often more.
Daily Dispatch marketing manager Kim Daly said: “Readers are encouraged to drop off their bottle tops and bread tags at Gussies Gifting and Stationery at 98 Old Transkei Road, Nahoon Beach. They can manually enter here as well.”
Readers should follow the Daily Dispatch Fun Run page on Facebook to stand a chance to win SPAR vouchers. Two prizes of R500 will be won every day until October 10. Entries close at midnight that day.
Penny Smith of Gussies Gifting and Stationery said: “Registration for the fun run will take place at Gussies and we encourage the community to bring along bottle tops and bread tags.”
“All entrants for the fun run will also receive a Steers ice cream and a 25% discount voucher for Steers Nahoon.”
DispatchLIVE