St Bernard’s Hospice has had a REALLY tough year with the cancellation of our community based events due to Covid 19.
Events are not only there to assist with raising much needed funds, but are also used as opportunities to create awareness, marketing, education and assurance that St Bernard’s Hospice is still serving the Buffalo City Community after 30 years.
Covid 19 affecting EVENTS in 2020
With Lockdown and a stern caution from the authorities to avoid groups of people, many of the Fundraisers have had to resort to Virtual Campaigns that engage with people on Social Media. 
If you are used to “face to face” fundraising, the challenge can be rather daunting, but the Fundraising Department at St Bernard’s Hospice navigated unchartered waters.
So far, we have not managed to raise much from Virtual Fundraising events to replenish the dwindling financial reserves the organization has been tapping into the last few months to meet our monthly financial obligations. It is imperative we find ways of raising SIGNIFICANT amounts of funds in 2021. It might still be months before the Virus LEAVES South Africa. Please give us a call if you have any ideas or want to get involved in our Fundraising efforts.
R25000 Lucky Draw:
A Virtual event with ticket holders watching via Zoom from home.
Our 5th Lucky Draw Event was a success with 150 tickets at R500 per ticket all being sold. With the Covid 19 positive cases on the increase, we decided to arrange a live draw via Zoom.
The Kempston Group generously sponsored a lovely meal and a bottle of wine that ticket holders could collect at a Drive-Thru at the Beacon Bay Country Club. Our favorite MC, Dennis Collins and Chairman of the Board, Gordon Thompson kindly took charge of the draw, drew numbers for the lucky draw prizes and then the winning number. The winner of the R25000 for 2020 – Pat Cronje.
Our independent “auditors” from Rotaract, Henna Soorjee and Nitesh Harry kept a watchful eye on the draw proceedings.
Recipe Book
This was a collaborative effort by the two Fundraisers at St Bernard’s Hospice, Dawn Schmidt & Marchel Grant.
In the midst of the Pandemic and during Lockdown, we were delighted to announce that we had decided to collate and publish a Community RECIPE BOOK filled with the most scrumptious recipes from the best cooks in OUR COMMUNITY – with our events being cancelled, we had to come up with an alternative Fundraiser.
The typing, editing and collating of the book took a lot longer than was anticipated but Marchel was finally able to send it for publication first week of December. Harrys Printers have generously offered to print the book in colour and at NO CHARGE for which we are EXTREMELY grateful. The sale of the book will help towards raising much needed funds.
There is an aspect of this COVID-19 Fundraising Recipe Book for EVERYONE: House Executives / Children / Busy Students / Restaurants / Business / Organizations / Butchers / Delicatessens / Grocery Stores and YOU.
New Nursing Vehicle
In addition to the fundraiser, Marchel Grant, we have Dawn Schmidt, Corporate Liaison, doing general funding research and then submission of lengthy fundraising applications to the various organizations/individuals, Local, National and International funders for funding.
One such successful application was the eventual purchase of our new vehicle for the nursing department that was collectively funded by local and international funders. 
After 17 years of travelling on uneven terrain and roads, to and from patients living in and around East London, burdensome repairs and maintenance of our much used Corsa Lite, it was replaced by a VW Polo. We are relieved and thrilled at this new addition.
We say thank you to African Palliative Care – International Funder, and Local Funders: Buffalo City Municipality – Grant-In-Aid, Gladys Jacobsson Memorial Trust and Round Table Queenstown 16 for making this possible.
The Charity Shop
The Charity Shop is a financial lifesaver for St Bernard’s Hospice, so you can imagine how anxious our Shop Manager, Marlene De Beer was when the Charity Shop had to remain closed for the month of April and few days in May. 
- During that time, we encouraged everyone to clean out their wardrobes, kitchen, books, toys, houses etc. and consider donating their unwanted items to the Charity Shop. With all the required Covid 19 Protocols in place, the shop eventually re-opened again Mid-May and the donations started to arrive.
We are EXTREMELY grateful to all who supported St Bernard’s Hospice in 2020; whether it be PPE donations of masks or hand sanitizers, contributing to our tin collection in the shops, my school card, general donations, support of events or any other way. The fact that you care matters to us!
We look forward to a brighter 2021.
With love
Fundraising Department
