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A1GP patrons raise funds for needy children |
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Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
Durban - 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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