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Leaving a legacy: Bart Dorrestein

When the odds are against you, you have two choices – fight or flight. Legacy Group chairman Bart Dorrestein chooses the former. “People in his situation have two options. They can flee or do what Bart has done – stay here and create a better place,” says Mike Rowley, of Legacy Group. After losing a colleague and a child in separate crime incidents, Dorrestein has been instrumental in the creation of a line of toys commemorating victims of crime. “The idea stemmed from the fact that our family had the misfortune of losing my only son, Bart Jr, in a botched hijacking. We decided that we would react positively and address the cause of the problem. The reality is that crime is a social problem linked to unemployment,” says Dorrestein. Four years before his son was killed, Bruno Corte, Dorrestein’s partner in the founding of Legacy Hotels and Resorts, was fatally gunned down in a supermarket during a robbery. “After these two events, I decided to do something. The very name of our company implies that we want to leave behind a better world than the one in which we began,” he says. “We started Legacy Pride with two lion toys epresenting my son and Bruno, which we sold – the proceeds of which to be used in the fight against crime in this not yet defined initiative. Sales went
extremely well and we immediately sold 5 000 units through our hotels and website. We then had a batch of money and had to decide what to do with it. We expanded the initiative and the Matthews, Naidoo, Siebert and Goldin families, and the Rattray Foundation came on board. We now have a whole range of animals.” However, the feisty businessman was still not satisfied with the results of the venture. “More and more people came on board to support the project. The amount we collected was substantial and we began interacting with various people. We hadn’t addressed the issue that we had started off with, which was the root cause of crime. Fortunately Mike had done some internship work while he was at business school with a company called Trainiac, which specialises in graphic-based learner solutions. He suggested creating a game that can assist kids in forming their value systems.” From this, the Legacy Pride board game initiative was officially born. “The game that we have created is highly interactive and revolves around people’s imaginations. We show people the right way and wrong way of doing things – if you go down one road you may end up in a good place or a bad place,” Dorrestein explains. “The existing game is a draft. We’d like to encourage corporate South Africa to come on board through sponsorship. The game is still being tweaked. After that, we will take it to the Minister of Education. “Every animal sold funds 10 to 15 games. We believe that spreading good news is a better way of going about things. The more people that come onboard, the stronger the force for change will become. It’s a huge, fun initiative and shows a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. All people who have regrettably been involved in crime will hopefully become supporters of our Noah’s Ark of animals. I believe that my son and Bruno would be very happy if this was the result of what happened to them.” Details: The Legacy Pride Soft Animal Plush Toys are available at Netflorist and at all Legacy Hotels. Companies wishing to become involved with the Legacy Pride Morally Correct Behaviour board game can visitwww.legacypride.co.za

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