St. Benedict’s Clock Tower and Building Restoration Project
The Following is a letter from Doyne Ramenaden, General Secretary SBCAAC, Followed by a letter by Priyal Perera, the General Secretary of OBU Council of Management, St Benedict’s College
Dear Fellow Old Bens,
We hope you have been keeping well and safe during these unprecedented times.
We are pleased to forward below a message received from the OBU of St. Benedict’s College, Colombo. Per the attached brochure, the restoration of our College landmark Clock Tower and the renovations planned to the adjacent Clock Tower building is a worthy project, and our Alumni Association is fully supportive of this initiative. The Association is keen to financially support this project in the requested amount of Sri Lanka Rs. 1.0 million (approx. C$ 6,250). To this end, we are writing to kindly solicit your contributions to help us make this target a reality.
Over the years, our Alumni Association has actively raised funds for our Alma Mater and contributed towards equipping a modern library, provide computers for classrooms, construct a swimming pool, support the various sports wings and activities of the school, renovate the College pavilion and build more classrooms for the kids. One of our association’s proudest initiatives is the funding of an on-going scholarship program. We provide scholarships for the most deserving students from grades 6 through to grade 12 each year under the “SBC Alumni Association (Canada) Awards for Academic Achievement” title. However, due to the pandemic, we could not organize any fundraising events during the past couple of years. Also, as you are aware, our Alumni Association temporarily waived the annual subscription of $20.00 each during the 2019 and 2020 calendar years. Taking all this into consideration and given the importance of this Clock Tower restoration/renovation project, we are confident that you would support your Alma Mater and contribute towards this worthwhile fundraising initiative.
We welcome your feedback and would appreciate if you could please make your contribution on or before Friday, April 8, 2022.
Thanking you in advance.
Sincerely,
Doyne Ramenaden
General Secretary
On behalf of The Council – St. Benedict’s College Alumni Association (Canada)
Dear Colleagues from Toronto,
With great pleasure I wish to inform you of the Clock Tower / Clock Tower Building Restoration project is finally in place.
This will be our biggest challenge for this year. The Clock Tower Project will officially mobilise on Friday 21st January 2022. And scheduled to be completed by mid November 2022.
Project & procurement procedures have been duly followed by the Clock Tower Management Committee. Evaluated and negotiated with best rates, considering difficult times existing in Sri Lanka.
This is a 120 million Rupees ++ project & expecting to raise funds amounting to Rs. 50 Million. Our Loyal Old Ben Mr. Felix Dias will be spearheading this Fundraiser. We look up to your chapter for this donation as we earmark Rs. 1.0 million contribution from each OBU Chapter.
Project Chairman – Old Ben Mr. Rohan de Silva (Chairman – McLarens Group) has generously donated 25 Million Rupees, and we have initiated the project thanks to Rohan.
I have enclosed the Soft Copy of the Clock Tower Restoration Project Brochure, which illustrates the entire scope of this project. In Page No 19, the breakdown of Expenses are indicated & a detailed breakdown can be emailed upon request.
You can either donate by way of Fund Transfer or take over a specific area (such as Digital & Physical Library / ICT Centre / E Learning centre / Lounge & Archives Centre / Power Gym etc…). As we need operating Equipment to be installed, apart from the Restoration of the Building & the Clock.
We thank you for your active participation in this regard. And your support to make this project a complete success, for the benefit of our Alma Mater & our precious Children.
May God Bless you!!!
Priyal Perera
General Secretary
OBU Council of Management
St. Benedict’s College
St Benedict's College Alumni Association (Canada) 