Dear members & well wishers,
Once again our Annual Dinner Dance is upon us and it gives me great pleasure to send this is message to all our members, their families and friends.
Like an “echo” around me, I am constantly hearing people exclaim, “Where did this year go?” Yes, we are almost at the end of the year and of course any year except a leap year will only have 365 days. Yet, we are amazed how those days had passed by. It is a well known fact that if we are feeling this way, either we are getting old or we are too busy. Certainly the latter is true when it comes to the Executive Committee members of our Association. What a year we have had!
First and foremost, we had the rare opportunity of celebrating our present Rector, Fr. Jero Selvanayagam’s Episcopal Silver Jubilee with him. It was a real privilege indeed to have him with us. His visit served a dual purpose. On one hand we were so pleased to have him in our midst to when he celebrated his jubilee and on the other we got the first hand information about the progress and the needs of the college. We wish him a happy and successful period as Rector of St. Patrick’s College and thank him for all his selfless and genuine hard work for the progress of our college.
Since our last Dinner Dance, we have been busy generating funds for various causes of our Alma Mater. It is because of your support and generosity; we were able to help the needs of our Alma Mater. We received several donations from various well wishers. I offer my sincere gratitude to all our donors.
My special thanks goes to Dinukshi Ferdinand who took part in the London Triathlon and raised more than £7000 for our Perpetual Fund. She is first person who was not a student of St. Patrick’s, yet went through gruelling physical hardship to raise fund for our association. She is a rare breed indeed. Also she is an Australian by nationality but dedicated her heart & sole for our British Alumni Association. I hope she will be a leader for all our future generations.
I would also like to thank Dr & Mrs Balachandra who have donated £4500 for the development of a new IT lab. This money along with our contribution has already been remitted to the College fund, in Srilankan rupees amounting to Rs 1.2m. Though I am in danger of missing out some of our donors, I would like to thank a few other major contributors specially Mrs. Miriam Albert who carries on her late husband’s generosity by contributing £1300 this year. Other are Prof. Chitramohan & Mr. Jayerajah, both donating £500 each, for the development of the class room facilities in the Mathuram Square in memory of our late Rector, Fr. J. A. Mathuranayagam. I also would like to thank our regular donors, Mr. Rex Philips who donates £500 every year, Mr. L. W. Christian who donated £400 this year & Mr. Rajmohan who donated £185 from his Birthday Celebration. I also would like to thank everyone who helped to fund IDP students at St. Patrick’s College, namely Dr. Theresa Joseph & Dr. Vasanthi Sandrasagra, not forgetting Mano & Sagu Manuelpillai who have been helping the IDP students at St. Patrick’s College directly. Once again, I like to thank Mr. Ramakrishnan for his continuous support in offering scholarship for 10 underprivileged and well deserving students. Last but not least I like to thank all those regular anonymous donors who did not want their names mentioned and also those names I have unfortunately forgotten to mention.
The UK Alumni has between February & October this year remitted to College a total sum of £11,900 towards the IDP students fund and for the purchase & installation of 28 new computers. This is in Srilankan rupees equivalent to 2 million rupees. According to Fr. Rector’s report we are the highest donors among the global Alumni Associations.
It is also with great delight that I can inform you that after having provided such large sums for the needs of our College, our Perpetual Fund too has continued to rise from £63,000 to £115,000 within the last 3 years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Ex co members and all those involved for their hard work which help us to achieve this target.
Even with all these good news, I unfortunately have some things to moan about. Though our life membership has risen in the past years, our income through regular membership has dwindled. We really need some young and new members. I would urge each and every one of you to be part of our Association and through your membership be a part of us and help our Alma Mater.
Our generation is getting weary, old and tired. We need younger and more vibrant members. Please encourage your children to be part of us by joining as an associate member. We are also revamping our Web site. Look out for a more interactive and attractive web site which we intend to launch this winter.
Finally, I thank our families and friends for being a continuous support. We may not say it frequently but we all know that we would not have achieved what we have, without your support / help.
Have an enjoyable evening. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year.
Dr. N. R. Rubakumar
President
11 December 2010
Patron Rt Rev Dr T Savundranayagam His Lordship the Bishop of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Vice PatronsRev Fr M Jero Selvanayagam The RectorSt. Patrick’s College Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Rev Fr Eugene Francis The Chaplain Tamil Chaplaincy, UK