Bloemfontein, 19 June 2012 – “It is really amazing and deeply touching to see people doing good for others,” said OFM presenter Shaxe Khumalo at Saturday’s Winter Warm-up drive. “It is really heartwarming to know that so many people think of the less fortunate,” he said. Outside Pep in the Southern Centre in Fichardt Park, Bloemfontein, as well as Pep at the Loch Logan Waterfront, the blankets were piling up into the 1000’s for the day. A huge pile of blankets were delivered first thing in the morning by St. Andrew’s School in Bloemfontein who donated 200 blankets to the needy, while another man donated 57 blankets in his personal capacity. The total number of blankets that were collected came to 7360 in North West, 6500 in Free State and 4416 in Northern Cape.

The Winter warm-up is an initiative of OFM, Vodacom and Pep. “We have been a partner in this drive since 2008,” said Pep South Free State area manager, Helena Steyn. Apart from providing affordable merchandise for donations, Pep also deals with the registered charity organisations and takes care of the distribution of the thousands of blankets that are donated every year. “On 27 June we will draw all the blankets from all the participating stores and make them available to these organisations,” said Steyn.

Vodacom, another partner in the drive, dared their top twenty corporates to outdo each other with regard to blanket donations. “Asanti gold mine gave R150 000’s blankets,” said Vodacom regional volunteer champion, Steven Swarts. “Avbob also proffered R30 000 for blankets, while Debonairs donated 30 blankets with many other of our top organisations,” said Swarts. Swarts felt that having OFM as a media partner made a real difference. “All these companies want for their great contributions is recognition and the on-air challenge was a great way to motivate them to give even more to the cause,” said Swarts. Vodacom, as partner, also gave a hearty donation to the cause.

“This winter is going to be really cold,” said another well-loved OFM presenter, Kenzy Vinco, who with all the other OFM presenters joined in on Saturday to encourage shoppers to stop and donate a blanket. “Today I realized the true nature of people in the central region.”

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