Thank you Billy’s Beach

At a presentation at Billy’s Beach late yesterday afternoon, Nigel Aitken, outgoing chairman of St Francis Bay Residents Association, thanked the organisers of Billy’s Beach for their support of the local community charities over a number of years.

Addressing the gathered crown from the stage soon to be occupied by the ever popular Parlotones, Aitken said “Every year Billy’s Beach puts on a great show and it gets better and better each year. I would like to thank them for being extremely professional in the way they go about the event each year. This time of the year is a time of giving and every year Billy’s Beach donates substantially to worthy charities within the greater St Francis region. Last year they donated significantly to St Francis Bay Rotary for the recycling project in our township which assisted in construction of a building to house the project at God’s Acre”.

Aitken continued, “Billy’s Beach is probably the only enterprise that does something something over the Christmas period that puts something back. I would like to thank them and you should as well! This year there are three worthy causes that Billy’s Beach are donating to, the first going to St Francis Hospice Kouga and I am sure you all know the marvellous work that Hospice does throughout this region and they will be receiving a cheque for R15000 and I ask Marian Coetzen to join me on stage to accept the cheque”.

Marian Coetzen of St Francis Hospice Kouga receiving cheque for R15000 from Shaun ‘Billy’ Payne and Nigel Aitken

Following this presentation to Hospice, Aitken then called on Lesley Moore of Talhado Children’s Haven who do such wonderful work for the children of Sea Vista to receive a cheque for R5000.

The final donation for an amount of R10000 was presented to Greg Dark and Caroline Anderson from St Francis College for a bursary fund that is going to a child fro Sea Vista. “The person to receive the bursary will be chosen by the St Francis College board who will look specifically at two criteria. one, the scholastic side of education and secondly sporting potential as we, South Africa are a sporting nation”.

In closing Aitken again thanked the Billy’s Beach organisers and “we look forward to seeing you next year” as we are sure do most who call St Francis home.

Congratulations to the organisers of Billy’s Beach, not only for their generous support of local charity but also for providing a wonderful facility that entertains not only us locals, but also the some of the many thousands of visitors who descend on to our town over the Christmas holidays.

On a somewhat negative note, the presentation was delayed for 30-minutes awaiting the arrival of the Kouga Municipality Mayor. Whether there was a misunderstanding that the mayor was to be present or if she simply did not arrive is a uncertain but considering that the donations made by Billy’s Beach are a benefit to the community at large, one would have thought some effort could have been made for the mayor to attend or at least have a representative present.

Some useful links to the above organisations:

St Francis Hospice
Talhado Children’s Haven 
St Francis College
Billy’s Bach St Francis