Most things in life can seem fairly predictable, but the weather is not often one of them, especially on the southern tip of Africa! As much as we held thumbs for sunny skies for our Waterfront Waddle on the morning of Saturday 12 October, it just wasn’t going to be. So, keeping in mind Joe Moore’s quote of, “It is impossible to look at a penguin and remain angry”, we simply stared at a couple of our black-and-white feathered friends and then reverted to plan B (well, we made it up very quickly, anyway…)

Morning refreshments were laid out for our Solemates, and face painting for the kiddies got the day’s events smartly under way. Despite the minor weather setback we actually had an impressive turnout of supporters for this international celebration. We even had television personality Liezel van der Westhuizen join us and show her support for the penguins.

All who arrived for the occasion were waddled up to the SAPPI River Meander for an informal chat on why many of the world’s animal facilities and conservation organisations would be honouring the African penguin on one special day. Check out the highlights in the video below:

To quickly summarise the status of the species: endemic and endangered and may go extinct with 15 years; egg harvesting and guano scraping in the early 1900s were the major historical impacts; predation and dwindling fish stocks are modern-day threats, as well as oil pollution; their numbers are as low as 2% of their population size a mere century ago.

It’s quite natural to focus on the reasons that the species is under threat. This, in itself, is possibly dangerous, as what we focus on expands! So let’s shift gears right here and now.

The Penguin Promises campaign prefers to emphasise what effective actions can be taken to contribute towards the African penguin’s long-term preservation. Conscious daily choices, by every individual on Earth, are what count in terms of creating a more sustainable environment for every living organism. This planet is our one and only life-support system, and we definitely need constant reminding of this.

Simply put, a Penguin Promise is an environmental promise. What are you doing to lighten the load for Mother Earth? Here are some of the wonderful, most common penguin promises made by our guests this past weekend:

• “I will pick up litter every time I visit the beach”
• “I will turn off the lights when I leave the room”
• “I will pick up litter in the park”
• “I will do four beach clean-ups per year”
• “I will help/volunteer with animals”
• “I will shower for two minutes”
• “I will grow a veggie garden”
• “I will throw away in the right bin (recycle)”
• “I will join a greenhouse initiative”
• “I will smoke less”
• “I will not use plastic bags”
• “I will not use straws”
• “I will not throw papers out the car window”

In order to feel like we can make a difference, we need to keep our promise simple and easy to achieve. So pick one promise, either from the list above or make up your own, and really give it your all as if your life depended on it ... because it actually does. Visit www.penguinpromises.com.

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