Our newly appointed Western Cape team had big plans but no foundation to build ideas upon, thus we started brainstorming ideas for our launch. The goal was to find a venue that had a strong reputation for important stakeholders we wanted to invite but that also spoke to the students of Stellenbosch that could become core team or FLiC (Friends of Lessons in Conservation) members. It was decided that The Trumpet Tree was the perfect fit and our launch which was successfully held at the restaurant on Thursday 4 April 2019.
Since it was our first official event as a team we were equally nervous and excited, knowing that the evening would set the precedent for what lay ahead. It turned out better than expected and our hours of planning were fruitful. The restaurant was filled with a diverse crowd, young and old, to whom we presented our mission and the previous successes of the Gauteng team. Background music by Ben Dey set the tone to a relaxed evening of raffle prizes, good food and networking.
We achieved all the goals outlined for the evening: informing and networking with the Stellenbosch community about LiC and raising some funds through a small raffle. It’s a humbling moment when the founding members of the Western Cape team look back together at our launch evening and realise how far we’ve come with a more integrated team, several other successes behind us and exciting plans ahead of us!