IT'S OFFICIAL!

Graaff-Reinet IS The Town Of The Year 2010

After two weeks of frantic voting, Graaff-Reinet was named as the Rapport/Kwela Town of the Year for 2010, beating its nearest rival, Mossel Bay by over 7000 votes.
Chantelle Marais and her organizing committee must be congratulated on running an outstanding campaign that saw the entire Eastern Cape getting involved.
The prize of R1million in publicity for the town, will have an enormous impact, not only on the Camdeboo, but for the rest of the Eastern Cape.
Thank you Graaff-Reinet for proving once again that this is truly the "Gem of the Karoo".

Charity Cyclists in Aberdeen

Aberdeen recently played host to a group of cyclists from Stellenbosch. These six energetic people are covering a journey of 1780 kilometres in 20 days, from a wine farm in Stellenbosch to Pietermaritzburg, to raise funds for arthritis and cancer sufferers. The project, named "home2home", was initiated by teacher Dieter Lutge. He has been inspired to raise awareness of rheumatoid arthritis by the experiences of his mother, who has suffered from this crippling disease for several years. Like most of us, he also has several family members affected by cancer.
The cyclists and their support team arrived in Aberdeen on Thursday evening, after a gruelling ride from Willowmore. With over 600km covered in six days they were more than ready for their first rest day, and enjoyed the tranquillity and history of our beautiful town. Jean Watermeyer from the publicity office organised various visits for them, including a fascinating tour by David Millar of the well-known church panels.

A necessary stop for one of the team was Pep Stores for a hot water bottle! Karoo meat from the local butcher proved to be a firm favourite as the group were able to enjoy the luxury of a braai on their day off. Many local residents were keen to stop and talk with the visitors, who handed out magazines and leaflets about arthritis. The group were fascinated to discover that Professor Orlando Meyers, who started chatting to one of the group, is a past chairman of the Arthritis Foundation of South Africa! To date, the impressive amount of R40 000.00 has been raised for the Arthritis Foundation and Helping Hands. The group were unanimous in their commitment to these causes - and also seemed to be having a great deal of fun along the way!
Here is an extract from Dieter’s log from day 7 of their trip:
The significance of this Road Trip is highlighted by certain experiences – An arthritic lady from Outdshoorn, whose husband wanted to purchase her a bike, but could not because her arthritic hands could not close over the brake. The significance of this tale rang true when the previous day the two girls experienced the same condition but not from arthritis but the freezing conditions.

What motivates a person to take part in such a grueling trek? Dave Wilkinson, at 42 the oldest member of the group, is a farm manager in KwaZulu-Natal.
“I have always wanted to do a ride like this and when I got the opportunity to do it and at the same time achieve something for a good cause I could not turn down the offer. A ride like this for regular folk like us will definitely be a challenge and we will at times be out of our comfort zones, but our discomfort can not compare to that experienced by arthritis/cancer patients. I am honoured to be able to be out of my comfort zone so that I can make a difference for those affected by arthritis/cancer”
More about the group can be found on their website www.home2home.co.za, and anyone wishing to make a donation to this very worthy cause can find details there.

Article By: Peter Shaw

Auction in Aberdeen

A delightful property in Grey Street, Aberdeen came under the auctioneer’s hammer recently.
The house belonged to Mrs Joe Coetzee, who at the grand old age of 93 has decided that it is time to move into Aalwynhof Old Age Home.
A spritely Mrs Coetzee was at the house to welcome many interested potential buyers, who were unanimously impressed by this neat and obviously well-loved home. Mrs Coetzee had moved here from Villeria on the death of her husband and was obviously sad to leave, whilst looking forward to a new chapter of her life at Aalwynhof.

The auctioneer, Duncan McLaggan of Port Elizabeth, read out the conditions of sale before opening the floor to bidding. After a slow start, the competition started in earnest with the house eventually being sold to a local man for R210 000.00.

Article By: Peter Shaw

Cemetery Walkabout

A chilly morning did not deter the enthusiastic members of Aberdeen Publicity and Tourism on their monthly walkabout last week. Eleven ladies braved the cold and were most interested to explore the Aberdeen Cemetery, both the Christian and Jewish sections. The majority of the graves have been well maintained, with some very impressive headstones.
The grave of Jan Vorster, the original owner of the farm Brakfontein on which Aberdeen was founded, was the first stopping point for the group. This grave has been lovingly restored by the late Jan van Heerden, and is of great interest to many visitors to the town.

A large tree had been uprooted in the March storm, but fortunately the trunk fell between two graves, and no damage was caused to the headstones. A few centimetres either side could have destroyed an irreplaceable monument. The wording on this unusual memorial is a touching tribute erected by E. Steinhobel and children to C.M. Steinhobel, who died at age 52 in 1916.
“A darling wife, a dear mother
To know her was to love her
To remember her revives sweet memories”
Interestingly, Steinhobel was the architect who designed many of the grand houses in Aberdeen, including De Denne, now Karoo Moons guest house.
One of the members sparked a treasure hunt of sorts, having seen on a previous visit a headstone commemorating a man who had been born in Aberdeen, Scotland, and died in Aberdeen South Africa. Unfortunately no one was able to find the grave, but the interest of many was piqued, with promises to return to find the headstone concerned!
The walkabout concluded with a very welcome pit stop at the Kamdeboo Padstal, where a beautifully set table awaited the group.

Article By: Peter Shaw

Support Our Neighbouring Town & Support Tourism In Our Area!

Graaff-Reinet – Town of the Year Winner – Eastern Cape

A letter from the organizing committee:

We have, through the efforts of many, been voted the best small town in the Eastern Cape and now we are entering the final stage of this competition and we are in for some tough opposition from the other eight finalists.
This competition is more than just Tourism; it gives Graaff-Reinet an enormous amount of media exposure. Rapport and Kwela have a budget of R1 mil to spend to promote the winning town.
We need only to look back at events such as the Under 13 Craven week, the Harley Weekend, the Dolphin Rally and many more to see just what an impact visitors make to the economic well being of our town, imagine what winning this competition will do to place us firmly on the calendar as – the one place that must be visited!
The “Dorp van die Jaar” / “Town of the Year” committee has come up with some innovative ways to encourage all our town folk to participate in making us the winning town.
Some of the items being arranged is a street parade with drum majorettes, collection cans for donations towards the cost of sms’s, free coffee at some of the coffee shops and all we ask is that the person enjoying the coffee send 4 SMS’s (at only R1.50 per SMS), a telethon day at the Tourism Office, the old folk at Huis de Graaf will receive air time and participate in the Seniors SMS day and much more.
This is why we need your help and participation. The competition limits the number of sms’s per cell phone to 100, which means we need large numbers of cell phones to orchestrate the campaign. To do this, we need funds so that we can buy air time which we can then supply free of charge to any person who is willing and able to help by spending time sending 100 SMS’s.
So we ask you to please help by making a donation to buy air time. How much do we need? Well 100 SMS’s cost R150.00, so if you can see your way clear then multiples of R150.00 would be greatly appreciated.
If you wish you can encourage your staff to send the sms’s and your contribution will then be to donate the time to them.
Please help us – and if you have made any form of contribution please let us know, because we are placing a barometer if sms’s sent in The Advertiser so that all who have participated can see just how the campaign has and is going.
Voting will run from Sunday, 18 July 2010 and closes on Sunday, 31 July 2010, so please try and vote as much as you can over the next two weeks. The number to SMS is 33157 and each SMS costs R1,50.

The contact details are as follows:
Organiser : Chantelle Marais
info@camdeboocottages.co.za - Mobile: 071 670 4747
Bank Details:
Dorp van die Jaar
ABSA Bank
Acc No: 9244827019
Branch Code: 334216