Virtual Jailed and Bailed exceed all expectations

Date: 08 August 2020 By: 

Mother Teresa is quoted as once saying that what matters is not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. Judging by residents’ response to the Louis Trichardt SPCA’s virtual Jailed and Bailed fundraiser, a lot of love was certainly going round.

This popular annual fundraiser, whereby community members are “jailed” at the local kennels and their friends have to “bail” them out in the form of donations to the SPCA, was hosted in a virtual format this year from 18 to 31 July because of the Covid-19 lockdown regulations.

Twelve (un)lucky individuals were placed under (not-so-strict-at-all) house arrest for the period and their family and friends had to bail them out.

Lesley Gaigher, chairperson of the Louis Trichardt SPCA, was overwhelmed by the response they received from the community, with the fundraiser just exceeding the R80 000 mark in total donations for the project by early Monday morning.

To highlight the amazing achievements of the local SPCA’s 2020 jailbirds, here is a look at the top performers of the past:

2016 -Leigh Bristow R10 000 +;

2017 - Igmar Loock R11 930 (campaign profit R43 000);

2018 - Brian du Plooy R9 350 (campaign profit R42 000); and

2019 - Andy Leach R8 970 (campaign profit R40 400).

“Now, in 2020, amid a global crisis - our top Jailbird has smashed the record!  Even our second-place holder doubled his target! This could not have come at a better time. Our funds were dwindling, with all our major functions cancelled or postponed indefinitely,” said Gaigher.

This year, first place went to Anton Pretorius (who faced charges for lighting up the dance floor). He rounded up his fellow partygoers to collect an astonishing R15 900. The well-known Dr Casper Venter (the suspected ringleader of a bicycle gang) assembled his troops and accrued R10 050 and in third place was Hanlie Nagel (suspected of orderly conduct) who raised R8 550.

Other contestants this year were Stanley Thompson (a suspected unicorn poacher) who brought in R7 870, followed by Greg Leach (suspected of falsifying his mother’s birth certificate) with R7 600,  Team Ridgeway (Dionne Redfern and Jannie Le Roux - the selfie addicts) brough in R7 300, while Martin du Plessis (who busted a move) collected R5 900 towards his bail.

Dr Ida Glover (who let the dogs out?) collected R5 450 with Marina Joubert (who was suspected of organizing an unlawful protest in support of toilet paper hoarding) raising R5 100. Danie Pita (suspected of drunk dialling) accrued R2 900, while Schalcha Loots & Vubi (the suspected identify swappers) collected R1 090. Mariné Olwage (who was suspected of disguising a fugitive) made R1 000.

“This year’s earnings blew our minds. We were overjoyed to see the bank balance rising every morning when we logged in to track your progress! We really could never have guessed that a virtual Jailed and Bailed campaign would be even more successful than actually having our Jailbirds wait out their time in a kennel,” said Gaigher.

She expressed a heartfelt thank you to all of this year’s jailbirds and their supporters. “These generous donations will soon be hard at work to help us care for the destitute animals in our region,” said Gaigher.

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