Gordon’s Bays Lions Club celebrates one year of its Skills Development Project in Temperance Town.
The Temperance Town Kids participating at the skills development project enjoyed a happy afternoon with creating individual Valentines cards.
For many years Lion Paula Lang dreamt of starting a skills development project.
When Lion Michele Pretorius joined the Lions Club, the foundation of this project was laid.
The project started a year ago with a few children to learn the basics of knitting.
Soon the group had grown to more than 20 Temperance Town girls and boys.
When Lion Monique Snyders (at age 20 making her the club’s youngest member) joined the project, her approach was to allow the children to be more creative and undertake art projects.
During Arbour Week in September, the children planted Spekboom in tins which they had decorated themselves, and they were also given a short lecture on the water wise Spekboom and the impact on the environment, as well as taking care of this little plant.
Next on the skills development agenda was painting a ladybird doorstop which they could take home. At first the children were hesitant to paint, saying that they didn’t know how, or which colours to use, but once they got into it they thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Every week another object and technique is planned for the Grade 1 to 7 pupils, to allow them to use their own imagination and train abilities like cutting, drawing and painting, which teaches them invaluable skills in hand-eye.
A tree was put on the wall in the Yellow Door community center. Each child had to draw, colour and cut leaves to decorate it. The tree will be used to teach them about different seasons; they will replace the leaves, and decorate it for different holidays like Easter, Christmas etc.
The children have a lot of fun every week and everyone enjoys working with these very lively, sweet children. The lessons taught also include life skills like compassion for others and the environment. Ultimately all of this develops self-confidence.
The Christmas party in December 2016 was one of the highlights for the children, and they were treated with sweets, burgers, playing games and music.
If you would like to get involved into the skills development project, contact Paula at 082 896 8913, or email info@gordonsbaylions.co.za
Everybody with creative skills is welcome, and the project takes place at the Yellow Door in Temperance Town, 5/6 Armstrong Street, during school terms on Tuesday afternoons, from 3pm to 4.30pm.
