Cape Town - Ronald Horn from Schaapkraal, near Philippi, does something special every Christmas. He travels to the forests of Grabouw to fetch Christmas trees. He then sells them and donates the money to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.
Horn, 37, a transport and plant equipment-hire business owner, started working at age 15. When he turned 16, he received his first bakkie and sold firewood and braai wood, and did small rubble removal jobs.
Horn now owns his own transport company, Horns Transport, and uses his business to raise funds for the hospital and the Red Cross Children’s Hospital Trust.
“I just decided one day that I wanted to do something for people over Christmas and the idea of selling real Christmas trees came to me, and what better way to celebrate Christmas than with a real tree in your house? And to help sick children.
“We go to Grabouw every year and choose the trees, and by doing that we support the local community there who chop down the trees for us.
“We leave Cape Town around 3am to get to Grabouw to load the trees, so we can be back around 8am. From there the trees get offloaded at two sites where we have our tree sellers, two of whom are my oldest sons.
“I’m giving people work for the holidays so they can also have the chance to enjoy Christmas. I’ve been selling trees for 22 years now and it’s turned into a family thing.”
The Children’s Hospital Fund said: “Like clockwork, just before Christmas every year, quietly, humbly and with a smile on his face, Horn hands in the cash donation to the trust from the sale of those trees.”
* The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital is a beneficiary of the Cape Town Big Walk.
@TheCapeArgus