Full Disclosure: I’m a Fatima Old Boy and past President of the Alumni Association and if you cut me, you will find yellow and blue blood.
Fund raising in our schools is about survival. There simply is not enough funding for schools to operate far less develop. When we add to that dilemma the flow of funding which impacts cash flow, it’s pretty challenging for schools to survive far less thrive.
The government assisted schools have found a pot of gold in Carnival. And some of them are doing it better than others, in my view. To simplify things, there have been two main approaches. The first is Fete as mass market product, where you reach out to all and sundry. The second sees fete as a school community event. QRC and CIC are pursuing the former. Bishop’s and Fatima are pursuing the latter. And Bishop’s and Fatima are winning the Fete Intercol. (Holy Name Convent has taken a completely different approach that sits better with their values; and their Vintage Concert, for me, is pure genius.)
There are a whole bunch of benefits that come with the Bishop’s/Fatima approach that go beyond the dollars. The real benefit is the community that is built around the event. Parents, teachers and Principal, past students, friends and family sharing common goals and investing their time to build their school. Can their be greater profit than that?
Every Fatima Boy knows the line of a song we have made our own: “We go beat them next year”. When it comes to fetes, it’s the QRC and St Mary’s Boys who have been borrowing the chant. (and I must admit, I am enjoying hearing them)
