Cheesekids for Humanity News
The good, the bad & the incredible pretty lightness of being
Posted on 19 Jul 2011 / Tags: none
the good,
the bad,
and
the pretty incredible
lightness of being ...
On Sunday 17th July 2011, our world changed.
Without doubt Cheesekids Mandela Day 2011 in partnership with Old Mutual made an indelible mark in the psyche of many here in SA and abroad. We have our friends in the media to thank for spreading word of this occasion. But something else happened. No less than 48 hours after the event we found ourselves trending in the social mediums.
People were speaking about Cheesekids. In huge numbers. People were speaking as Cheesekids. In just a day Cheesekids went from an object of curiosity to the subject of association in the hearts and minds of many who came. Our world had changed.
And with this change comes the inevitable demand for more: more ways to get involved, more programmes, more places, more outreach locations, more impact, more organisation. More growing up. And so our world further changes.
On Sunday our world changed because once you've taken responsibility for the means for 5,000 people to contribute and participate meaningfully in making SA a better place, things can never be the same again. On Monday 18th July 2011, just as we had a year prior, Cheesekids rose to find it's awkward, gangly legs straightened just a little bit more. It was the third time that we had marked Nelson Mandela Day in such fashion, with the aim to afford as many people the opportunity to participate. And this year our efforts were augmented with significant support from our corporate and non-profit partners, public officials, from all manner of industry, journos, celebrities, entertainers, from our respective families and friends, but more importantly by thousands of South Africans of every colour, creed, age and background. For us the dream we all most associate with Nelson Mandela, the rainbow nation, became manifest yet again, at our collective behest. And so, our world was irrevocably changed.
But more so than not our world changed because of our collective declaration that we will not sit idly by whilst this world needs and demands so much of us.
And as we all know, world change starts with one act at a time, a single set of 67 minutes. Which when multiplies reverberates into the sound of hope for all who witness it.
I witnessed this.
I witnessed over 260,000 minutes of change in a single day.
There have been few, if any, more humbling moments in my own life. Indeed, this past weekend I was awash with awe at just how far this little four year-old organisation with no full-time staff, no grants but a lot of heart had come.
The Good
Beyond the thousands that joined us on Sunday;
Over 700 kids were fed by your cooking, entertained and touched in a way that is a rarity. Some had never seen a jumping castle before.
Over 500 learners got new classroom coats.
Over 30 homes were endowed with a new garden, a spit-shine or a truck load of donations.
The South African National Blood Service collected 4% of their daily national blood in-take requirements in Jo'burg alone.
Importantly we entered into or renewed our bonds with these beneficiary organisations; with over 4,500 beneficiaries collectively; to incorporate them into our weekly and monthly programmes and thereby ensure not just sustainability of our work, but allow you to consistently be involved with these organizations.
These tales of hope, and many more, are being sought and documented in the weeks to come. We hope to be able to share these with you, so please share your tale. Thank you to Kwanele in Jo'burg and Dani in Cape Town and Diedre in Durban and the many hundreds of you sharing your emotions, pictures and tales via email, blogs and social media. We are honoured by your positive reflections and warmed by your best wishes for CKMD in the years to come.
The Bad
But not all was rosy. There was Ashely from Cape Town, and Jason from Durban, and Suzanne in Johannesburg and Anita and Robyn who respectively work for two of our partners... and many others who did not share the sentiment captured above.
Sadly, some of us were terribly inconvenienced in our bid to contribute our 67 minutes. Some of us felt unfulfilled, we could have done more, should have done more we felt. Some of us even felt like frauds! Adorning a t-shirt bearing the name of our great icon and feeling that the manner in which we had spent our day had been anything but iconic. Some of us were turned back earlier than the stated times. Some of us found the level of organisation wanting.
To everyone who came away saddened or disappointed, I tender my most sincere apologies. There can be and are no excuses for such failings, and as founding member with oversight of all operations I take full responsibility for any experience that is less than that intended and marketed by our organisation.
Cheesekids is about an experience. It is an incredible and truly enriching experience of connection, context and fulfillment when things go right. And it can be terribly frustrating and downright demeaning even when they don't. We view it in a very serious light, these moments of frustration, because we cannot continue to encourage social action when the cost of such action is unbearable.
We can never give you back your time. We can only offer a more constructive use of it in future. A future wherein we will have tightened our operations, logistics and communications. A future that is demanded by both the good and bad experiences that this past Sunday heralded.
We have always grown in leaps in bounds from our missteps, and I am without doubt that this occasion will be no different. To this end, we appreciate all of the feedback we have received to date. Please do keep sending your thoughts and comments on how we can improve. Importantly we have been moved by all of the offers to assist. It is a little-known fact that almost everyone in the circle of Guardians (our executive team) past and present came into it with complaints, suggestions and ideas of how to fix the little things that stay with us long after we've all driven off. We welcome these offers and will be in touch with many of you in the weeks to come.
Lastly, in so far as any of our partners are concerned, all organisation was left to Cheesekids. We are appreciative of this display of faith. All of our partners have supported and continue to support our ventures on the face of our own assurances. To this end, none are nor should be held liable in any way where we did not deliver on our hallmark Cheesekids experience.
Sadly, some of us were terribly inconvenienced in our bid to contribute our 67 minutes. Some of us felt unfulfilled, we could have done more, should have done more we felt. Some of us even felt like frauds! Adorning a t-shirt bearing the name of our great icon and feeling that the manner in which we had spent our day had been anything but iconic. Some of us were turned back earlier than the stated times. Some of us found the level of organisation wanting.
To everyone who came away saddened or disappointed, I tender my most sincere apologies. There can be and are no excuses for such failings, and as founding member with oversight of all operations I take full responsibility for any experience that is less than that intended and marketed by our organisation.
Cheesekids is about an experience. It is an incredible and truly enriching experience of connection, context and fulfillment when things go right. And it can be terribly frustrating and downright demeaning even when they don't. We view it in a very serious light, these moments of frustration, because we cannot continue to encourage social action when the cost of such action is unbearable.
We can never give you back your time. We can only offer a more constructive use of it in future. A future wherein we will have tightened our operations, logistics and communications. A future that is demanded by both the good and bad experiences that this past Sunday heralded.
We have always grown in leaps in bounds from our missteps, and I am without doubt that this occasion will be no different. To this end, we appreciate all of the feedback we have received to date. Please do keep sending your thoughts and comments on how we can improve. Importantly we have been moved by all of the offers to assist. It is a little-known fact that almost everyone in the circle of Guardians (our executive team) past and present came into it with complaints, suggestions and ideas of how to fix the little things that stay with us long after we've all driven off. We welcome these offers and will be in touch with many of you in the weeks to come.
Lastly, in so far as any of our partners are concerned, all organisation was left to Cheesekids. We are appreciative of this display of faith. All of our partners have supported and continue to support our ventures on the face of our own assurances. To this end, none are nor should be held liable in any way where we did not deliver on our hallmark Cheesekids experience.
The Pretty Incredible Lightness of Being
It was that quintessential symbol of non-conventional leadership, Winston Churchill, that once whilst building a wall and having had it pointed out to him that the section he had just completed was crooked, that quipped "anyone can see what's wrong, but can you see what's right?"
In the run up to our event, I shared this tale with many of our team, to remind them that whatever goes wrong (as Murphy's Law dictates something must) we cannot lose sight of the good. I too have needed to be reminded of this. It was the constant stream of emails with subjects such as "I want to join" or "come to our City" or "When can we do it again" or "I'd like to be part of tutoring" that did it for me.
In the run up to our event, I shared this tale with many of our team, to remind them that whatever goes wrong (as Murphy's Law dictates something must) we cannot lose sight of the good. I too have needed to be reminded of this. It was the constant stream of emails with subjects such as "I want to join" or "come to our City" or "When can we do it again" or "I'd like to be part of tutoring" that did it for me.
Internally, we have always viewed our Mandela Day events as three-pronged: a celebration of the example and ethos of one of Afrika's greatest sons, a means to enable many more to do on one day what we do all year round and lastly as a means to recruit like-minded individuals to then drive more programmes in concert with different NGOs to enable other like-minded individuals to bridge the capacity gap that exists in our social development cycles today (in simple English we want more folk to do more sustainable work that then in turns draws in more folk to do more sustainable work with all those good guys out there that run orphanages and hospices and education programmes).
Again, a little-known fact, many of today's Guardians were first introduced to the organisation at last year's CKMD event.
It is thus heartening, dare we say overwhelming, to receive the many inquiries about becoming an active Cheesekid. We're looking forward to having as many of you on board soon.
As I alluded to earlier, this time calls on us to raise the bar on our own delivery to date, and begs us to scale up in many respects that would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago. I know that many of you with your hands up now will play meaningful roles in these changes that our organisation is set to encounter. And I wish you the very best in these exploits.
When we sum it all up, this past Sunday was a decidedly good experience for many of us, and notwithstanding the bad moments; what ultimately went right, was that hundreds of us have become inspired to mark not just a date on a calendar, but every day a Mandela Day.
What more could we ask for.
I thank you all for your contribution to making this day, this movement and these moments memorable, and something I'd like to be associated with for years to come.
I thank the Mandela family (which has been so integral; particularly the younger generations; to Cheesekids' founding and success to date) and the Nelson Mandela Foundation respectively for your ever-green commitment.
I thank Old Mutual for your unstinting support in this project.
I thank 5FM for your all-weather friendship.
I thank all of our other corporate and NGO associates in this project. An extended note of acknowledgements will soon follow.
I thank all of my fellow Trustees and my colleagues, the Guardians, Alumni, Ambassadors and MandelaDayAides that make Cheesekids and this particular project work week in and year out.
And I thank you the reader for following this train of reflection. It is never easy to express in words what is felt deep in the heart. But harder would be to let the significance of the change that the past two days have heralded go unmentioned.
Happy Mandela Day. From now on, every day is.
Love, Action & Mo' Cheese
Shaka "le GrandFromage" Sisulu
Founding Member and all-around-excited-that-we're-here guy
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