Aberdeen Garden And Home Club

In January 2009 the Aberdeen Garden and Home Club’s committee, elected in December 2008, had its first meeting at Mrs Annie Featherstone’s home. The monthly venues for the next ten months were decided upon. The last meeting of 2009 would be held in November when a new committee would be elected. It was also agreed that plant sales would be held in March and September of this year, and meetings would be held on the first Thursday of every month. An article published in April 1972 (?) in a local newspaper, suggested that a Garden Club was started in Aberdeen in that year by a Mr Stewart Melville at the home of Mrs Lynn Olivier with eleven members. There will probably have been earlier clubs formed in Aberdeen, and it would be interesting to the present club to have those details.
On Thursday 5th of February 2009, Mr David Miller gave an interesting and informative talk on a different way to landscaping the garden. This event was held at the Karoosmiles in Aberdeen and was very well attended. One of David’s many interesting concepts was to involve all the family in planning a garden and planting those flowers or shrubs which the individual family members knew or liked best, so that it became a shared garden. He said that a garden should be planned with a budget in mind, and that good gardeners were usually people who shared plant cuttings, and who were never shy in asking for them. David spoke of essential good ground cover, drip soaking instead of watering with a hose, and the necessity of bringing birds into the -garden and methods of achieving this.
It was a successful morning, with the Club gaining new interested gardeners to the Club.

Article By: Joan Tinker

Anna Featherstone, David Miller & Padgie Pienaar

Fight Alcohol And Teen Drinking!!!

Alcohol and drug abuse is making inroads in Aberdeen - I have noticed a tremendous abuse of alcohol and drugs amongst children under the age of 21 and this is a sad story for our small dorpie. One might say that the root cause of this is as a result of the lack of sports facilities which in turn leads to the young lions of Aberdeen roaming the streets of town. The other side of the coin mat well be the fact that there's too many “smokkelhuise” in our very small town. Once again, this is a worrying factor for Aberdeen and I think that our youth need to take this into cognisance.
A child who reaches the age of 21 without ever having smoked, abused alcohol or used drugs is virtually an unknown. Alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are not only adult problems - they also affect a significant number of adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 20 - even though drinking under the age of 18 is illegal. The average age when youth first try alcohol is approximately 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls. By age 14, 41% of children have had at least one drink. Teens who begin drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21. I have personally noticed 15 and 16 year old children abusing alcohol in Aberdeen. The onset of drinking at an early age is also associated with alcohol-related violence, not only among persons under the age of 21, but also among adults in our dorpie. It has been estimated that over three million teenagers are out-and-out alcoholics. Several more millions have a serious drinking problem that they cannot manage on their own. Drinking, often beginning around age 13, tends to increase during adolescence, peaking in young adulthood (age 18-22) then gradually increasing. Individuals who increase their binge drinking from age 18 to 24 and those who consistently binge drink at least once a week during this period, may have problems attaining the goals typical of the transition period from adolescence to young adulthood (e.g. marriage, education, attainment, financial independence, etc.).
I think all of us have a responsibility to cultivate better behavior for young children in Aberdeen. We all want to see Aberdeen producing medical doctors and other professionals. We need to develop a mechanism together with our local Municipality through the by-laws and take control of this abuse. We also need to encourage our schools to instill a culture of learning amongst our youth. In fact, I think we should encourage them to start a book club that will motivate them to read a lot and thereby empower their mind set.

Article By: Lulamile Klassen

Aberdeen Sport Awards Ceremony 2008

On Friday 30th January 2009, an award ceremony was held in the Aberdeen Secondary School for sporting achievements in 2008.
This event was organized by the Sport, Arts and Culture Committee of Ward One Aberdeen, and the Programme Director was Mr. Desmond Coetzee.
This ceremony was attended by Mayor Daantjie Jaftha, by Mr T.D. Desha an ex-Deputy Mayor of Aberdeen, by Mr Pannies from the Department of Education, and by the Ward One Councilors of Aberdeen.
Schools receiving sports awards were Kamdebo Primary School, Luxolo Primary, Aberdeen Primary and Aberdeen High School.
Clubs who were present to receive awards were Everton Soccer Club, and Aberdeen Rugby Club.
The guest speakers of the evening, gave motivational talks on education and the importance of sport in today’s society, and explained to the learners receiving awards, that sport had now become an important profession. Talent and hard work could achieve great heights for any and all sports. Motivation and discipline was needed, and Mr. Pannies was impressed that a Springbok rugby player had come from Aberdeen, and had achieved these great heights.
This rugby player was the Sportsperson of the Year, Saloma Booysen who was presently in training in Port Elizabeth, for the 2009 Seven’s World Cup to be played in Dubai. Saloma is Captain of this team. In an article printed in the Advertiser in 2008, Saloma was given full recognition for all her achievements. Entertainment for the ceremony was by the New Apostolic Church Orchestra, and a modern dance was performed by learners of the Kamdebo Primary School.

Article By: Joan Tinker