Scotch College

JFA campaign goes well

Naming opportunities for seats proving popular

There will be 450 plus seats in the Music Auditorium and 420 in the Drama Theatre. As an acknowledgement of a donor's generosity, a naming opportunity for a seat in one or other of these performance spaces is being provided to supporters of the project, who pledge a gift of $2000. Given that the pledge can be paid over a five-year period, with tax deductibility, the cost can be as little as $4.00 a week.

To date, gifts have provided naming opportunities to honour staff members (past and present), relatives, and people prominent in the world of music or drama. Some donors have requested that they be given an opportunity to have their son's names used and others their own family name. The possibilities are endless.

Forbes Society membership

A luncheon was recently held at the Melbourne Club for members of the Forbes Society. The Society, established by the Scotch College Foundation in 1996, honours in an appropriate way donors who make gifts of considerable generosity to the school or Foundation, and who have made, or are making, substantial contributions to the school's development.

It gave the President of the Foundation, Peter Joyce, much pleasure to extend membership of the Society to Kenneth Gifford QC, John and Louise Ayre, and Euan and Deborah Gronow.

Excitement over project at London Dinner

Campaign Chairman, Campbell McComas, was Guest of Honour at the Annual OSCA London Dinner held at the Hyatt Carlton Tower in early October. In a call from France to Peter Crook, Campbell said that it was an extraordinary night. He commented that after showing the James Forbes Academy virtual reality video 'walk through' the Academy, discussion was 'appropriately' enthusiastic. Anthony Teasdale ('94), in a letter to Leigh McGregor published in this edition of Great Scot, said, 'the video was the highlight of the evening'.

Some highlights

1. A Drama classroom will be named after a former Head of Drama, Ian Harrison.
2. An endowment will be established by supporters, income from which will help provide the salary of the Academy's Director.
3. At a recent luncheon in the Junior School, parents of a Junior School student proudly informed guests that their son was using pocket money to fund a seat in the Academy.
4. The Mackie Family name will be retained on significant elements of the Academy.
5. A Sydney actor with no Scotch connections has made a gift to honour a great Australian actor, the late John Ewart (Class of '50).
6. Andrew Kay, promoter of the 'Spray Farm Summer Festival', has offered his support by giving a significant percentage of income from ticket sales to Scotch Family members who purchase tickets to 'The Guards are Coming'.

Contact Peter Crook or Margaret Long on 9810 4300 for details about how you can support this incredible project.