Friday 12 February 2021: As the Covid-19 pandemic continues across the globe, many have felt its devastating effects over the last year. In a bid to thank those who have risked their own lives to help others, the Wynberg Campus of Schools today decided to do something to show their appreciation to their own community health workers.
Staff of all four Campus schools (Wynberg Girls’ Junior, Wynberg Boys’ Junior, Wynberg Girls’ High, and Wynberg Boys’ High) took to their grounds to create the biggest thank you they could think of.
Staff lined up, socially distanced, to create the word “Wynberg” and used their own pooled and recycled resources to form a large red cross and the words “Thank You” on WBJS’ sports field.
Courtney Wallace, of WBHS, wrote and read a poem titled “Heroes among us”. The moment was a chance to remember those within the school’s own community who have passed on over the last year, those who are currently ill, and those whose lives have been negatively affected by the greater economic effects of the pandemic.
Recognising the value that healthcare workers have played across the country and closer to home in the Wynberg community specifically, the schools have decided to host a number of civvies days over the coming months, to encourage donations from the schools’ communities for the staff of Victoria Hospital in Wynberg.
“We are community-based schools, and service is one of our most important pillars. The medical fraternity has made countless sacrifices for others over the last year – saying a small thank you is the least we can do, on behalf of all our staff, learners and families,” said the Campus.
Heroes among us – by Ms Courtney Wallace
We stand here today where looking back, everything seems different and looking forward, we know nothing will ever be the same.
We stand here today in a world where loss seems to have triumphed over gain.
We stand here today to not only remember those heroes who have left but also to celebrate those who walk with us, step after step.
For so long, we’ve tried to find heroes in Marvel and DC but we’ve found them here living amongst you and amongst me.
They have donned their capes and their n95 masks and have bravely stood at the fore. And because of them, fighting this enemy has felt less like a war.
For us.
Because, as we ran for our safety and sat in wait for the decline, they stayed outside, with “first, do no harm” and Hippocrates on the mind. They stayed behind. They fought the enemy: yours, theirs and mine. They laid their safety aside and laid their lives on the line.
For us. And ours.
And as we stayed inside and tried to do our part, they cast fear aside and kept beats in our hearts.
Frontline workers, Thank you. Thank you. Thank…queues and queues of people who flocked from our homes to yours. You made room; you found ways, so that they weren’t alone. We were at home and you – alone in their fight. Adjacent to beds when we weren’t there in sight. You squeezed hands; you wiped brows; you sat with them in prayer. You were the link between God, home and their ear.
You were there. You threw blood, sweat and tears into saving our loved ones and quelling our fears.
You were the fluids, the blood, the tubes and the air. You were life; you became machines. We cracked; we crumbled; we broke at the seams, yet you stood firm and continued to believe. With everything topsy and turvy and strange, you never stopped trying, fighting, pushing – you remained.
For sure, the mountain is still difficult to climb. We are not over that hill. Covid is not yet behind..but though the future is still murky and the past still filled with grief, we can focus less on loss and more on belief. We can because of our heroes; our frontline; because of you.
We stand here today in honour of you – in the labs, in the wards, in the clinics and ICUs –
I see you.
We see you.
