Celebrating 25 years of fulfilling dreams
Reach For A Dream celebrated its 25th anniversary of fulfilling dreams at a gala dinner held at Emperor's Palace on August 17.
Activities during the event included live music performance by PJ Powers, comedy show by comedian Marc Lottering, performance by the Cantare Children’s Choir, different guest speakers, a three course dinner, a lucky draw and other activities.
Reach For A Dream is a non-governmental organisation, which believes in the power of dreams.
They encourage children to use their dreams to fight life-threatening illnesses, and they seek as far as possible to make dreams come true.
Their vision is to grow the foundation, enabling themselves to continue giving hope to children fighting life-threatening illnesses through the fulfilment of their dreams, and to further help as many children facing these illnesses though their national projects.
Their national projects include Camp Sunshine, Queen For A Day, Captain Courage, Tracy Fun Centres, Show You Care Send A Bear and their Jabulani Kingdom Hospital entertaining projects.
The inspiration to start the Reach For A Dream Foundation came from an article on the Make-A-Wish Foundation, based in the US.
Owen Parnell, past Randburg Rotary Club President, was struck by the opportunity to establish a similar venture in South Africa.
Then, on July 7, 1988, the organisation made its very first dream come true. And so the journey of dream fulfilment began.
The organisation was officially named the Reach For A Dream Foundation in 1991, and defined its core purpose as “fulfilling the dreams of children of any race, colour and creed between the ages of three and 18, faced with a life-threatening illness.”
For the past 25 years the foundation has brought hope, joy and healing to countless South African children.
These children between the ages of three and 18 years have battled cancer and leukaemia, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, renal failure and various blood disorders.
