Every year writers and poets come together, to partake in the very unique and special poetry festival in our village. Over the years the youth have always been part of the program in different ways. One year, the theme of the festival was, Garden of the Beloved. A teacher from the School and an ex-Waldorf teacher from the village told a story and the children drew beautiful drawings of the Beloved's Garden.

The class 5 and 6 children who live in McGregor were invited to participate in an afterschool visual literacy program for a week, where they used their phones to take photos and focus on photographic principle along with reading, interpreting and the expression of the visual. In a time where technology, especially phones are so often misused it was wonderful to learn new skills of expression.

A group of high school children participated in a poetry writers' workshop over a weekend where they were guided by Dorian Haarhoff in writing poetry on the theme for the youth category of the competition. We were very proud of an ex-student, who featured in a documentary of young poets in McGregor, 'Seeing beyond Words'. It was his reflection of why he writes poetry and where he performed his poem written in the time of Covid. It was such an inspiration to see how he values words and poetry.

We are very fortunate to have such wonderful initiatives in a small village like McGregor. These moments remind us of the African Proverb, " It takes a Village to raise a child".