A special R50,000 from Darren's Tip Jar goes to Advantage Cruises

In celebration of #DarrensDecade on East Coast Radio, we lined up Darren's 10-part Podcast Series, The Roast of Darren Maule, and Darren's Tip Jar. 

We finally close the tip jar today with this final special edition that Darren chose to add. Amanda De Gaspary nominated her friend Riette after her business, Advantage Cruises, saw a horrible dive because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

She had employed 47 people. Now she works alone. Before COVID-19, she always helped the local community. Now she can not even help herself. The bank has repossessed her vehicles and is about to take her house and has frozen all her accounts and credit cards. She has already sold everything she can. From furniture to ornaments, crockery and cutlery. She has nothing left. She has even sold her clothes and plants in her garden. 

We gave her a whopping R50,000 to help recover all that she had lost, together with her business. 

It is a heartbreaking story that Darren and Lottoland.co.za had to pull out all the stops for. 

This was an amazing surprise for her. Take a listen: 

Riette shared: "We are such a big company, with huge overhead costs, and COVID-19 has very closely destroyed us financially. And as a boss my heart breaks for my husband and myself and our staff, this boats are not easy light work. It is hard work to get the boats out there, and to do maintenance, and to work through the night to fix an engine, because at 6h00 the next morning we have customers. 

"And we just go into auto pilot and make it happen, and all staff assist, and we do the tours that the public are looking forward to do. It is also not easy now to see our office and our town so quiet, devastated by the impact that COVID-19 have had on the tourism and hospitality industry." 

She continues: "We have been in this business since 1991. We were the very first Government approved Boat Based Whale and Dolphin Watching operator in KwaZulu-Natal in 1999, and are also since 1999 a cruise boat operator on the St Lucia estuary under iSimangaliso Wetland Park authority concession. All our staff want to do is work, but without clients our hands are tied down." 

We are elated to have given her this gift that will give joy not only to her, but to her employees as well. 

Thanks to Darren for celebrating his decade in this way, but also to Lottoland.co.za, you have made a huge difference. 

Thank you!

Main Image Courtesy: Supplied