Giving Back to St Joe - The Handover

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Here's some quick photos from the donation handover and walkabout at St Joe this morning ... This is just to satisfy the impatient who are asking for the blog to be updated 30 seconds after the event. LOL

Anyway I'll be posting more stuff later today or tomorrow ...

We donated student desks and chairs,and teacher tables for 3 classrooms, plus a projector. The picture above shows the projector being handed over, in the presence of eight representatives from the Class of 1976. We also had a reporter from the Borneo Post in attendance.

Principal Mr Thomas Lau then brought us to each of the classes with new furniture and we spoke to the teacher and students.

We shook the hands of each and every student ...

Here we are in another classroom with the Prinicipal and one of the teachers, Ms Sandy Wong.

Of course, we had to test out the desks and chairs for ourselves ....

A shot outside the classes ...

And a final shot with the Old Boys Block in the background ..

Here's a BEFORE and AFTER look at one of the classrooms ...

This was a small but meaningful project. In a way, this is a project reflecting our three HOPEs. We hope our contribution of desks, chairs, tables and projector will make a small but positive difference to the learning environment of St Joe. We hope that other former students will also band together to make similar (hopefully BIGGER) contributions to their alma mater. Finally we hope that the government may also take note and lend us further support in this effort to boost the quality of education for Sarawak.


Item in Borneo Post (16 Sep 2010)

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Giving Back to St Joe (Part 4)

Well guys, after several months we're finally getting to the last stage of our "Giving Back to St Joe" campaign ...  The official handover will be very soon.

Before we show you the new furniture, here's a reminder of what the class looked like before.

Now here are the photos of the new desks and chairs our donation made possible. A million thanks to Bob for all the hard work in coordinating this.

A closer shot of the label ...

Now for the teacher's table  ...

Bob decides to test drive the chair and desk ...

Another view of the desks and chairs ...

Another view of the classroom ...

Wow, what a difference !

Giving Back to St Joe (Part 3)

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Here's an update on our donations from Bob Chew ...


"Hi all

1. Mark and I went to St Joe last week to confirm and pay for 105 units student desks and 3 teacher's tables. Choice of material, colour scheme and carpentry was done by SJS. The total for desks ( RM 7140 ) + tables ( RM 1500) = RM 8640.These desks and tables will be imprinted with " donated by Form 5 class of 1976".

2. We are now ordering 105 + 3 pippee brand plastic chairs to be sent to SJS . These will also bear the imprint "donated by Form 5 class of 1976".

3. All items will be delivered into the class ready for the new term on 14th Sept. The school break is from Sep 4th - 13th.
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4. We will organise a handover ceremony, date to be advised, after putting all these in place. The plan is to have at least 3 reps each from Form 5 Sci, Arts1 and Arts2 to be there for handover. We will also invite all donors if they are in Kuching. I will liase with the school prinicpal.
Bye for now

Bob Chew"


Thanks Bob and Mark for all the efforts.  Will all those who haven't yet sent in their pledges please arrange to do so directly with Bob (lkcbob@tm.net.my).

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LINKS

Here are links to previously posted information on our "Giving Back to St Joe" initiative.

27 May:   Revisiting the Library

12 June:   Giving Back to St Joe

3 July:     Giving Back to St Joe (continued)
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10 Sept:   Giving Back to St Joe (Part 4)

15 Sept     The Handover

Giving Back

As many of you know, most of our blog postings have so far been of a relatively light vein. We try to locate and reconnect with our old friends. We explore our life interests, such as travel, food and hobbies. We try to recall events, people and places from our teenage years.

So one could say the theme for Year 1 of our blog was "Reconnection". The outcome was quite successful. We have linked more than 100 out of the cohort of 120.

For Year 2, I'd like to suggest that beyond reconnection, we focus on "Giving Back". By this I'm referring to giving back something to our alma mater, our hometown, our society, causes we care about, etc. Giving back doesn't have to be just monetary - we can contribute our skills, resources and ideas.

George and others have recently been discussing how we can giving something back to our old school. The teachers and staff of St Joe have provided all of us a strong foundation for life, and for this we should be most grateful. Let's see if we can do our bit to ensure that present and future generations continue to enjoy all the good things that St Joe can provide.

When some of us visited the school on the morning of 23rd December, the day of our Grand Reunion, we had the opportunity to walk around the premises. There have been a number of changes - new blocks, auditoriums and other facilities (e.g. the gym). The external areas looked quite neat and well-maintained, with one notable exception.

We were a little taken aback by the interiors of some of the classrooms. Here's one of the photos I took of a classroom in the Form 4 and 5 block, which shows some of the deterioration  ...

Some of the ideas we discussed included funding a renovation of certain classrooms, "adopting" a form perhaps, and getting involved in the upgrade of some of the school facilities. We should also take into consideration the learning needs of students in the digital age.

I'm sure you will contribute more ideas for us to discuss ...