Published the Jamaica Gleaner: Saturday | August 3, 2019 | 12:13 AM
LINSTEAD, St Catherine:
The Dinthill Technical High School in Linstead, St Catherine, saddled with a tab of over $20 million to fund their sports and Schools’ Challenge Quiz programmes, on Wednesday launched its special project fundraising committee at the school under the theme ‘do it for the love of the children.’
The committee comprising parents, past students and friends of Dinthill has set its sights on raising $1.5 million by the end of November.
In its two weeks of existence so far, it was able to hand over $111,000 to Principal Monica White, $50,000 of which came from a block drive, it initiated as the first order of business.
INVESTMENTS IN EDUCATION
Speaking at the launch, educator and St Catherine Municipal Corporation Councillor Roojae Kirlew implored prospective contributors to view their contributions as investments in education.
“I am seeing this campaign as an investment in education and youth development, don’t just look at it as an investment in someone else child, but to the development of Jamaica because you would be investing in human capital,” Kirlew observed.
“Some people might see it as a just a sports team or a quiz team, but it’s more than that, it’s about creating well-rounded students so they can have meaningful impact anywhere they go, they can add value to the economics of the country in their various disciplines,” he added.
Principal Monica White said in addition to the emphasis on academics and sports, there should also be a look at the spiritual development.
“We can’t do this without that, hence, we would be creating clever devils, so we are talking about a mission and a vision for our students,” she asserted, while endorsing the initiative by members of the Special Projects Fund-raising Committee.
Director of the committee, Karen Sudu, said the idea was born out of the need to do something to assist the school, given the enormity of their special projects budget.