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A1GP
patrons raise funds for needy children
A1GP
World Cup of Motorsport raced into the streets of Durban, bringing the
seventh leg of the current season to the city for the third year. This
time around, the event was one with a difference, when patrons of the
highly exclusive premium hospitality, Pangaea, became the first ever
patrons in the history of A1GP to raise funds for a charity, while
attending a race.
Food 4 Africa is the organisation that became the beneficiary from the
proceeds of the A1GP auction. Food 4 Africa's mission is to work with
other organisations to supply children with at least one vitamin and
mineral enriched meal every day. Their target market includes pre-school
children; feeding the destitute; AIDS orphans, street kids and neglected
children as well as senior citizens.
They feed in excess of 17,000 children everyday, throughout Eastern
Cape, Northern KZN as well as Daveyton, Gauteng.
The auction took place in Pangaea on the Sunday of the Durban race
weekend, between the Sprint and Feature races. The items on auction were
beaded wire cars, specially made for A1GP by Food 4 Africa sister
company, Tangerine Marketing. The cars were replicas of the real-life
A1GP cars and represented the following nations: Great Britain, China,
Ireland, Netherlands, India, Brazil, New Zealand, France, Germany and
South Africa. The cars were made of wire as well as 12,000 - 18,000
beads per car while the wheels were made of black refuse bags. It took
10 people a whole day to make a single car. The highest bid for a car
was R300,000 which was made by SABC CEO Dali Mpofu, for the A1 Team
South Africa car. An impressive total of R1,115,000 was raised for Food
4 Africa.
Gordon Minott, Founder and Managing Director, Food 4 Africa said: 'We
are very grateful to A1GP for appointing us as the charity that would
benefit from the funds raised during the Durban charity auction. The
funds will be used to purchase food which will be distributed through
our rural school child development program over the next year. The funds
converted to food translate to 2.2 million meals. This allows us to feed
an additional 6,100 children per day. We would also like to say thank
you to the successful bidders. As our patron John Paul DeJoria
continually points out 'Success unshared is failure' and Food 4 Africa
SA and UK are grateful to the bidders who shared their success.'
Pete da Silva, CEO A1GP said: 'This auction was a first for A1GP and we
are happy to have raised a large sum of money for an organisation as
deserving as Food 4 Africa. The generosity of the patrons in Pangaea was
overwhelming and we thank each person who participated. As A1GP, we are
proud to have held this auction and we commend Food 4 Africa for the
work that it does and we hope that the money raised will go towards
helping the organisation reach new heights by feeding more needy
children.'
The auction was preceded by a visit to Mt Moriah, one of the care
centres that Food 4 Africa is affiliated with. Drivers from various A1GP
teams had the opportunity to interact with children from the care centre
by playing soccer with them, painting their jungle gym and playing with
the scalextric set donated by A1GP to the centre. The children from Mt
Moriah also got an opportunity to visit the Durban track to see the
drivers in action as well as visit the pit areas of the various A1GP
teams.
Food 4 Africa will use the money to provide needy South African children
with the nutrition that they need to grow healthy and strong.
The penultimate round of A1GP World Cup of Motorsport takes place in
Shanghai, China on 11-13 April 2008.
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