The Jefferson Rotary Club’s annual benefit auction will have a new look this year in keeping with the lead item up for auction. Welcome to Zulu Nyala and an African safari, complete with elephants, giraffes, cheetas, impalas, and sunsets unlike any in Iowa.
The dinner and auction is slated for Friday, Nov. 14. Rotarians kicked off ticket sales at their meeting Monday with an informal travelogue by Jean Feldmann and Doug and LeAnn Monaghan. Jean and her husband Don bought a Zulu Nyala safari package at the 2013 Rotary auction. The Monaghans took advantage of a buy-in option to traveled with them, making the trip in early August. A Zulu Nyala safari is once again up for auction.
Zulu Nyala is a 4,500-acre fenced preserve that is home to 40 different species. It boasts two lodges similar to hunting or ski lodges in the States, as well as the Hemingway Tented Camp. The Jeffersonians spent three nights in a lodge and three nights in tents. “We wished we had spent the whole time in the tents. The animals came up really close to the tents, so we got to see more,” Jean Feldmann said.
Their days at Zulu Nyala included two rides each day out into the countryside, where they saw every species people think of when they hear “safari,” and they saw them up close. Telephoto lenses weren’t needed for wild game photos.
Their trip went a step beyond the usual notion of “safari,” and touched an element of community service that is hardly unexpected if one considers the service provided by Rotary International on a worldwide basis.
Zulu Nyala was created by Trevor Shaw who, in 1981, used a fortune he had amassed in the diamond business to purchase 15,500 acres of remote, undeveloped countryside. He built lodges and 10 years later sold all but the 4,500 acres where Zulu Nyala is situated. Jean Feldmann had coffee and conversation with Shaw one morning. He explained to her that he purchased the land and developed Zulu Nyala as a way to provide employment for the native Zulus, who had been so negatively impacted by apartheid. Tourism is the primary – virtually the only – income source for the people there.
Feldmann told of seeing a crew of 75 or so men excavating a trench. She asked Shaw why he didn’t just rent a backhoe and do the job quickly. “You’re an American. That’s how you would think,” Feldmann said Shaw answered. “But this provides work for 75 people. While they work for me, they get breakfast, lunch and supper, and they get a wage. They would have nothing else. When this project is finished, there will be another one for them. I will keep them working here.”
The Feldmanns and Monaghans paid extra for a side trip to visit a school. The children there attend school only through seventh grade. Their school supplies are very limited, and the gifts tourists take to the school are important to the operation. So is the money the tourists pay to be able to visit the school. It’s rather like a farmer adding some agri-tourism to boost his income. At that school, edu-tourism is what keeps the school functioning.
Shaw provides the safari packages to organizations like Rotary for fundraising auctions. He splits the purchase price with the organization, regardless of the amount, as a way to bring American guests, and their generous tips, to Zulu Nyala.
Doug Monaghan called the safari “more of an adventure than a vacation,” but adventure or vacation, it put money into the hands of struggling South Africans. The travelers played a necessary role in the economy of the area.
To learn more about Zulu Nyala, click here: Safari
The African safari is just one of dozens of items that will be sold by live or silent auction on Nov. 14 at the Elks lodge in Jefferson. The evening begins with a social hour at 5:30. Dinner will be served at 6:30 and the live auction will begin at 7:30.
Last year’s event raised $30,000, which the Rotary club disbursed to local organizations and projects in Jefferson and around the county. Rotary’s support for the recent Remembering Our Fallen photo exhibit in Churdan is just an example of auction proceeds at work.
Tickets are available from any Rotary member or by calling Rotary president Tim Christensen at 515-386-4168. Rotarians are also selling tickets for a cash raffle. Eight persons will win $250 each; raffle tickets are $5 each. ~photos by Jean Feldmann
