Friends and supporters of the JP21 Foundation, former cricketers, education officials, coaches, businesses and showbiz personalities, gathered at Century City Conference Centre at the weekend for the foundation’s 10th anniversary gala dinner.
Established in 2015, by former Cape Cobras and Protea batsman, JP Duminy, following a stellar cricketing career, the programme involves more than 30 primary schools in its daily activities.
While cricket may be a summer code, the foundation’s work is an all-year affair that includes running a school’s league and various life- and ball-skill programmes.
“If you look at the characteristics and the essence of the game of cricket, it teaches you selflessness, it teaches you the ability to work as a team, understands what it means to be there for someone else, how do you work in a partnership. It’s about building character,” said Duminy in an interview captured in a mini documentary screened at the gala dinner.
“If you think about the game of cricket, you fail more than you succeed. I think that teaches us great lessons in life. So we’re using this game of cricket as a vehicle to educate them in a way that can teach them life skills,” he said.
Hosted by radio personality Ryan O’Connor, Saturday’s gala dinner included an appearance by David Isaacs and Oscar Petersen of Joe Barber fame who, in typical Boeta Joe and Boeta Gamat fashion, helped to tickle the funny bones and loosen the money belts, in an evening that saw the organisation raise 500k to sustain the programme for another year.
