EveryBarHasAStory

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November 10, 2021

#EveryBarHasAStory- Event Report

On the 27th of April 2019, we hosted the event #EveryBarHasAStory at Freeway Tabernacle Church, in Midway Soweto. This initiative was by Boitumelo Tumi3bars Katisi in her quest for giving back to her community Soweto as her birthday celebration in which she also included the East and West Rand, Alexandra, Tembisa and Pretoria township high schools to identify over 1000 learners to attend the event which creates aviation awareness and introduces the learners to all the professions in the industry.

We arrived at the church at 06:00 am and we had a briefing about the proceedings of the day. The first bus with school learners arrived at the venue at 06:45am. The learners were escorted to the registration room where they were separated into 5 groups, made up of colours, then they got their name tags and breakfast packs which had a sandwich, juice and a packet of chips.

We had about 120 volunteers, which were conducting a search when the learners got off the bus, so they weren’t carrying anything that would obstruct the events proceedings.

After all the buses had arrived and the learners had breakfast, they were escorted to the main venue by our volunteers, where they were given a bottle of water by Coca-cola and McDonalds before entering the main venue. The event started at 9am were the pastor opened the event service with a prayer and he welcomed all our guests and learners to the event before our MC Melika Mohapi took over by introducing the guest speaker from the MEC’s office and our second guest speaker from the Department of Transport.

We then had 15-20 minutes long presentations from our speakers which spoke to the kids regarding their own journey to be where they are today, telling they story and inspiring the masses, we had 18 speakers which entailed of charter, corporate, fighter, and airline pilots, air traffic controllers, aircraft mechanics and technicians, aviation fire fighters, cabin crew and many other careers in aviation.

The speakers were all very inspiring to the kids and they gave them motivation and hope that it is possible to become anything you want to become. The kids were very excited and inspired.

We took a lunch break at 1pm, were the learners were served McDonalds meals including the volunteers and team. The learners also took this opportunity to visit stalls which entailed of different aviation companies including flight schools which the learners could get more information regarding what they need to pursue certain careers in the industry. We had a flight simulator from Centurion Microflight School were the learners got the opportunity to experience what it feels like flying from the left hand side.

After the lunch and stalls visit we went back to the main event venue where several speakers completed they presentations and we later had Tumi announce and give out prizes to the learners which was 6 introductory flights and 4 flight simulator flights and 6 gift pack vouchers including acknowledging and thanking the teams parents for their support and our speakers for making time to come tell their story and inspire the kids.

The event was wrapped up by the #EveryBarHasAStory team surprising Tumi with a birthday cake and singing with everyone to her which was a very heartfelt moment and she said a speech.

The event was a great success as we had a capacity of over 4000 people including the learners from 20+ different schools across Gauteng including 3 organizations.

We as Aviation Development In Africa would like to thank all our sponsors for believing and supporting our vision to make this occur, as without you it wouldn’t of been possible. We hope to partner with you when we take this initiative to Limpopo next year and to partner with you to all the expos and aviation events and air shows through the remainder of the year.

We would like to thank the following sponsors:
Public Investment Corporation -for our branding, pre-launch and bus sponsorship for the learners.
McDonalds SA -for the water and 1500 meals for the learners
Mercedes Benz SA -for the crew shuttles sponsorship
Loutzavia Flight School -for the intro and simulator flights, advertising space, water, pens, visibility vests etc
Bluechip Flight School -for the intro and simulator flights, advertising space, water, lanyards etc
Centurion Microflight School -for their aircraft simulator at the event
Sheraton Hotel -for the pre-launch venue and décor
Grand Central Airport -for the fire emergency vehicles at the event
Phila Med Ambulance Services -for their visibility and medical support at the event
Veritas Group -for their gift packs prizes
Ndawonye Events -for the event organizing services
Pick n Pay -for the generous donation towards the breakfast packs
Tran-source -for the generous donations towards the breakfast packs
Sasko Bread Company -for sponsorship of 100 loafs of bread for the learners breakfast packs
Comair LTD -for the sponsorship of 2800 waters
Toyota -for the sponsorship of 240 waters
Alexandra Taxi Association -for the sponsorship of 240 waters
Siba -for our crew and volunteers T-shirt printing
Aerosud -for the sponsorship of 500 waters
Limitless Tours -for sponsorship of a crew shuttle for our materials
Protours -Our official bus provider with 21 buses including sponsorship of two buses
Nandos SA -Our school drive crew lunch sponsorship
South African Civil Aviation Authority -For sponsorship of over 1000 schools bags and water bottles
South African Weather Services -for sponsorship of school stationary
Ms Kagiso -for the VIP toilets sponsorship
and finally The Freeway Tabernacle Church -for letting us use their venue