Twitter Blanket Drive

Just like my love for Fashion I have a huge love for community and charity work, we caught up with Merentia and her "Twitter Blanket Drive" It was another huge success. The event was hosted by the Extresso Team Leighanne Williams and Katlego Maboe and have various performances by local artist like Chad Saaiman, Black Ties and Candice Thornton. A bit of a Bio about Merencia and the TBD. Merentia's career runs in media, from journalism in The Burger Newspaper to radio on KFm and currently radio Tygerburg. I did a Quick Interview just to get some insight on the Twitter Blanket Drive and how you can get involved

1. What inspired the drive for blankets?

The idea of the Twitter Blanket Drive came about, when a woman, Melanie Minnaar was inside her house one night in May, in 2010 years ago and she was cold inside her house and wondered how the people on the outside, were keeping warm. She went to Twitter and tweeted “let’s get the conversation started on a Twitter Blanket Drive.” And that’s how the TBD campaign was born. South Africans on Twitter just came on board and the campaign was off the starting blocks.

2. Who is most beneficially affected by the supply of blankets?

The blankets in 2015 in Cape Town were donated to 20 NGO’s. This includes organization working with children, seniors, the mentally & physically challenged, from all cultures, from all walks of life. The current drive has not fully concluded yet in the Mother City but 1950+ blankets have already been handed over to at least 8 NGO’s in Cape Town, for distribution. The drive in Durban & on the West Coast conclude at the end of June and coming Sunday 12 June 2016, members of the Jamestown Golf Club are collecting blankets for state patients sleeping on mattresses on the floor, at the Helderberg Hospital. Members will be bringing blankets to the Somerset West Golf Club, this Sunday from 13.30 PM for 14:00 PM.

3. How much work does it take running a big a event as the TBD?

There is a lot of work happening behind the scenes, starting about 3 months before the event. Most of all, the event would not be able to take place, if not for the Fire & Ice Hotel, who sponsor for us, soup on the night for the 200 guests, a venue, sound & a stage for our artists. It takes some time to find artists willing to perform for no charge at the event. We also went looking for other donations this year, like red velvet cupcakes and mini bunny chows as well as Steri Stumpie to drink. We had to find photographers and face painters to also donate their time. There was also a search for prizes to thank some of the lucky people who donated. Their is also the liaising with the NGO’s that will be receiving blankets, to send a representative on the night. This year we also had events prior to the drive, like free wine tasting for a blanket or free self defense class for a blanket, which also had to be managed, prior to the big event.

4. How can people help out for your next event?

It would be amazing if more people will come forward to take ownership for a mini blanket drive at their home, amongst just friends & family or at work, amongst colleagues, or elsewhere. It’s these amazing #TBDChampions we call them, who bring in more than 10 blankets at a time. This year, one woman, Wafiqah Osman collected more than 300 blankets on her own, Nadia Singh, who just moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg collected 125 with her partner & there was a primary school in Retreat, the Square Hill Primary School, that also collected 108 blankets. Blankets worth R20 000 were also donated via the Soong Ling Ching Foundation. Mpact Corrugated Epping donated blankets worth R2 000. There were many other #TBDChampions on the night who helped us reach a total of R1 550+ blankets. Another 400 blankets could not be dropped at the Fire & Ice Hotel and were taken directly to the Helderberg, to those beneficiaries.

5. How did the idea initiate of involving Twitter into the whole concept?

The idea of a Twitter Blanket Drive started on Twitter when Melanie Minnaar tweeted to get a conversation going about a drive to collect blankets. People showed interest like myself, taking responsibility for our cities & towns. I’ve been co-ordinating the campaign nationally for 4 years now, and have yet to meet some of the hosts of the drives, but yes I’ve chatted to them on Twitter and then also over the telephone, via e-mail and also over Whatsapp. That is the amazingness of Twitter that these people with good hearts come on board every year to give their time, data & petrol, if needed to the movement, to help collect blankets for fellow citizens, a campaign for the people, by just other people, active citizenry at it’s best. Any blanket we collect, is a blanket we didn’t have before and helps to keep fellow South Africans warm.