Tin Run 2017

Continuing with the stories of bikers doing good deeds for their fellow man, last Saturday 29th July was the date selected for the Meeulanders' annual tin run. As with many years past certain large chain supermarkets were selected and formal permission requested from the owners/managers as well as Mall management where necessary for members to gather outside the shops and request donations of non perishable food items. These are then formally handed over to the local chapter of the Round Table for distribution to people in need.

We have always selected the Pick 'n Pay supermarket in the Laguna Mall, Langebaan and this year there was no problem, the Pick 'n Pay supermarket in Vredenburg was likewise happy to have us as was the Spar supermarket in Saint Helena Bay. However at the last moment I was informed by one of our other regular shops, the Checkers in the Weskus Mall that for various reasons they were no longer allowing collections outside the shop.

I then approached the Ok Mini Mart in Saldanha with a request but the owner did not even bother to return my calls and the owner of the Spar in Saldanha sent a message via his assistant "No he doesn't want people standing outside the shop." This rather put me in a bit of a quandary and eventually we collected at only the three stores but in the end the results were good, not quite as much as last year but this we put down to the economic downturn and the lack of "spare cash".

The happy team at the Spar supermarket in Saint Helena Bay, we were on duty from 09h00 to 14h00 and managed top collect some four supermarket trollies worth of goods.

This is the team at the Pick 'n Pay in Vredenburg with their collection.

 It certainly seems like the team at the Laguna Mall managed the most but it's not a competition! (usually said by the ones that came third!) 

It was a good day and it was heartening to see the way the people gave, some could only afford one tin and that was all we asked for, but others gave much more.

I would like the supermarket owners to see this,  those who didn't want us outside their shops lost business because all of this represents extra sales, these items were purchased specifically for us, if we had not been there they would not have been bought.

This load was just from the one shop, there were two other loads as well. To the managers of the Pick 'n Pay in the Laguna Mall, the Pick 'n Pay in Vredenburg and to the owner of the Spar in Saint Helena Bay we thank you for your co operation. Soon we will have a formal hand over to the Round Table and I will keep you updated.

We celebrated a successful day with an after party of note, but that's a whole other story which I will tell in the next installment, watch this space!