On the 28th and 29th of May, McCarthy rally drivers and FirstRand’s very enthusiastic team of volunteers arrived in the North West province in a convoy of 25 vehicles and 100 employees, after a long 3 hour drive through to Wolmaranstad. They were on a mission to deliver teacher reading material to 12 under resourced schools in the region.

Once at the schools, Rally participants met and interacted with the learners and teachers who benefit from the deliveries as well as the subsequent professional development which is provided for three years by The READ Educational Trust.

Says Desiree Storey of FirstRand ‘What we wanted to do this year was to enhance the volunteering experience for our staff, and so we planted two indigenous trees at each school”. This ceremony gave the volunteers the opportunity to “experience” the children and connect with them.  They formed small circles around the individual trees and sang while they were planted. In some instances, they joined in and planted with the volunteers, adding compost and fetching water for the trees they had planted.

The next day, the happy participants had time to explore the Wolmaransstad/Ottosdal area before beginning the long drive back to Johannesburg.