"For us as a Twitter community, social responsibility is a serious business," says Merentia van der Vent, one of the spokespersons for the Twitter Blanket Drive (TBD). "As winter's bite fast approaches, we are aware that charities are under a huge amount of pressure to meet the demand for blankets. In today's digital world, we have the power to make significant change, in the area of social development, harnessing the power of social media."
Melanie Minnaar's initial tweet, "What if each person on Twitter donated a blanket?" led to the TBD movement: blanket drives in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, and for the first time this year, Pretoria. This year the official hashtag is #TBD2015.
In today's fast paced world, using social media to increase community awareness is not only smart, but essential. According to the founder of the campaign, Melanie Minnaar, the Twitter Blanket Drive has injected a true sense of community into the South African Twittersphere, as the number of Twitter users involved with the TBD has grown exponentially since 2010.
This year, the #TBD2015 team would like to encourage South Africans to nominate a charity, working with vulnerable people, to receive some of the blankets, collected through the drive. All charities will be vetted and beneficiaries will be named during the second week of the drive. Send your nomination and the name of your participating city to moc.liamg@evirdteknalbrettiwt by Friday, 8 May.
The team would also like to thank the Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! group of hotels, that have thrown their weight fully behind the Twitter Blanket Drive campaign. With a new Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Menlyn having recently opened its doors in Pretoria, collections are set for a boost.
Last year Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Cape Town and Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Melrose Arch together collected more than 4,000 blankets. These were distributed amongst four charities. They included, in Johannesburg, Seeds of Africa, Ark Animal Centre and Soul Food, a charity that collects and distributes supplies to approximately 30 shelters in the Witwatersrand region. In Cape Town, Operation Shoebox, which supports more than 15,000 children, benefited from this blanket drive.
For more information or to become involved in this year's drive, visit the official TBD Twitter page: @TBDAfrica. You can also contact Merentia van der Vent on +27 74 181 7899 or email moc.liamg@tnevdvm.
