The Hollywood Foundation is always looking for ways to uplift the community through various CSI initiatives including sports sponsorships. In February, the Purple Team was proud to lend a helping hand to Lwandle Athletics Club in the Western Cape.
With sports development at grassroots level being at the heart of the Hollywood Foundation, the iBranch Team in Strand was humbled to contribute running kits and tracksuits to the athletics club to keep the runners warm during the winter season, and for the runners to look their best when they participate in various races.
Lwandle Athletics Club was established in 2019 in Strand, Western Cape. The club serves runners from Lwandle, Nomzamo, Asanda Village and surrounding areas. Their objectives are to encourage, support and guide a healthier lifestyle and to develop the sport within the Lwandle community on a non- discriminatory manner that caters for all levels of fitness and ability, age, ethnicity and gender.
Through this running club, runners are able to engage in social activities that uplift the community and club vision while building a running family that is founded on core values such as, integrity, compassion, respect and sportsmanship.
Lwandle Athletics Club has 21 junior athletes, who are between the ages of 10 to18 years and 52 senior runners who participate in a number of races and WPA Cross-Country League. In May 2022, they had two of their junior runners partake in the ABSA 10KM run in Cape Town where they both got silver medals. The club won the WPA Cross Country championship for Under 11 and 15 girls.
Despite many challenges, the club continues to thrive, bagging more accolades including two silver medals for Under 10 and 13. The junior team participated throughout the season and finished in the top five in the WPA in its first year of full participation. They have one finalist that has been selected to present WPA in Rustenburg and one athlete included in the development team that participated at the 2022 ASA Cross Country Championship that took place on 17 September 2022. The senior team has also been collecting medals at the Two Oceans Marathon, Sainsbury and Comrades Ultra Marathon to name a few. The club participated for the first time in the Comrades Marathon with nine participants of which seven were novice. They achieved three Bill Rowan, one Robert Mtshali, two Bronze and three Vic Clapham.
Through a sports sponsorship, the Hollywood Foundation Team was able to bring smiles to the club and its members who have been struggling to fit in with the others during races. The club is self-funded which means not all their needs are met including transport and refreshments to races.
Thembakazi Dyani-Sapula, the Treasurer for Lwandle Athletics Club, thanked the Purple Team for their support, and added that this contribution will ensure that the athletes look neat and warm when they participate in races.
