It’s important to us that we share with you that the Veritas team is continually involved in different social initiatives throughout the year and how grateful we are, that we are able to do so, thanks to your support. Through our clients’ support and the resulting relationships that we have with fund managers, we’re able to put our collective resources into play to improve the lives of others.
For the past four years, members of the Veritas team have been involved in the Cableway Charity Challenge, which takes place annually in April. For those of you not familiar with the challenge, participants set off from Table Mountain’s lower cableway station, run up Platteklip Gorge and then to the upper cableway station where they get a free (deserved) ride down. They receive refreshments from the JDI Foundation and then repeat the circuit, from sunrise to sunset.
Some participants are able to complete two circuits and top athletes can do as many as 10, with the top male athlete this year completing nine summits and the leading woman seven. It is a truly remarkable fundraising event. The field of participants is limited to 200 and each participant has to raise a minimum of R2 500 as an entry fee.
Veritas is involved in the challenge in a number of ways. Members of our team lace up and commendably head up the Gorge (a few times!) We’re also part of the steering committee that drives sponsorship and the recruitment of the asset managers we work alongside, to enter teams to compete. We also funded the development of the event website, which is an important platform that enables participants to contact friends and family in order to solicit donations. The time, effort and sweat is all worth it and for the years we’ve been involved, the Challenge has managed to raise close to R1m on the day for the chosen charities.
PLAYING OUR PART
Veritas is also involved with an organisation called CoolPlay. CoolPlay is a programme that uses the power of sport, rugby and netball in these instances, to impart social and emotional learning in township schools.
Initially we recruited two retired Veritas clients as volunteers to run the programme and since then, some phenomenal young talent has been developed to take over the reins. CoolPlay has also received financial support from the various asset management companies we work with to support a number of their activities.
Today CoolPlay employs 30 people and works with 1 500 young learners. The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation was one of the initial sponsors and this year they took 12 boys from the programme to the Hong Kong 7’s rugby tournament. Here is a short video giving you a sense of what the boys experienced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwJ6UIuCd64
As former Springbok rugby captain and manager Morne Du Plessis said: “Two of the boys who arrived at Cape Town airport from Bredasdorp had never even been to Cape Town and there they were, about to jump on a plane to Hong Kong!”
In addition to the work we do with these two organisations, throughout the year we also give of our time in other ways. Barry is a regular presenter of talks to young emerging advisors at The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) and our entire team is involved with Financial Planning Week. During Financial Planning week we impart and share knowledge through a series of panel discussions to young professionals, helping them to learn and understand more about their journey to financial independence and creating healthy money habits.
The reality is we could not have done much of this work without our clients’ ongoing support and so we want to take this time to thank you, as through the spirit or reciprocity, we are able to continually support causes that look to improve the lives of others.
We wish you a safe, Happy Holiday season and if you’re keen to lace up for the 2019 Cable Way Charity Challenge, or get involved in either of these organisations, in any way, drop us a line.
Best wishes for a peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Team Veritas.
Thank you for sharing this article and video with us. Your commitment to continually support causes that look to improve the lives of others is commendable.