Irene Village Mall News
| THE DOG-LOVING MALL Monday, 19th April 2010 On Saturday 17 April 2010, Irene Village Mall hosted an original and fun family event to raise awareness for the South African Guide-Dog Association for the Blind (SAGA). From the early hours of the morning, there could be no doubt in any visitor’s mind that something big was happening. MJ Event Gear set up a thundering sound system and the SAGA volunteer puppy walkers and their beautiful guide dogs in training came out in full force. As the clock tower struck 10:00, teams started registering for the “Blind Man’s Bluff”, a treasure hunt that had them navigate to nine stations throughout the mall and perform simple tasks. The catch, however, was that one team member had to be blindfolded and the other act as the sighted guide. The teams were a colourful mixture of young and old, but everyone could attest to learning quite a bit about the plight of the blind and the important work of the guide dogs. Garth Collins, who’s a passionate and dedicated spokesperson for SAGA, was the big voice in the fountain court that attracted plenty of non-suspecting shoppers with his enthusiasm and wit. Every hour, members of the public were invited to take part in the obstacle course with a trained guide dog, competing against some of Garth’s more famous friends, such as Gugu Zulu, Lochner de Kock and Riaan Venter. Even Steve Hofmeyr popped in to put his weight behind the worthy cause, and quipped that the Blue Bulls looked like they needed some guide dogs in their earlier game! Garth handed out vouchers from shops in the mall throughout the day and at 14:00 prizes to the value of R50 000 was given to lucky entrants. The South African Guide-Dog Association needs a sum of R48 000 to train one puppy, but they make the trained Labrador or Golden Retriever available to a blind person for only R5. They receive no government funding and are dependent on the support of generous members of the public, of which plenty were in attendance this Saturday. Even though a hefty sum was raised, the objective was also to raise awareness about guide dogs and people with disabilities. Irene Village Mall is very proud of the caring community that came out to support us and we hope everyone now knows that we are not only a pet-friendly mall, but a dog-loving one to boot! Photo – Riva Schoeman and Andrew Sorril of Jakaranda 94.2 For further details, contact Martilize Ochse – Public Relations Manager, Irene Village Mall on (012) 662 4446 or e-mail irenepr@primelife.co.za. |
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Some Cow Facts
- 1,200 construction workers built the shopping centre.
- The Tower and its water reservoir is a new landmark in Irene.
- The centre has 95 segmental arches in the brickwork.