I am happy to report that the SAA committee has been kept very busy through the 2008/2009 term. Many challenges have faced us and the most daunting prospect has been the perennial problem of raising funds through dinners, events and appeals. With the global slowdown, we expected diminished results for our fundraising efforts but to our surprise and delight, many Old Boys and girls have rallied around to support us through these difficult times. More on this later.

The first major event of 2008 was the Alumni Art Competition entitled Art is for Everyone which was held on 20th May 2008. The principal sponsor for this  inaugural competition was a local gallery, Art Seasons, which donated $12,000. Prof Arthur Lim, an artist and collector himself donated a further $5000. The event saw hundreds of art entries from all the three schools. These were collected and sorted and exhibited in three classrooms on the ground floor of our old school (now the Diocese). Judging took place on Saturday, 19th April with the judging panel made up of Prof Arthur Lim, Terry Lee of ART Seasons, Andre Tan an upcoming local artist, Xin Yuan our art teacher and myself. The exhibits were then moved to Art Seasons Loft a large public gallery where the show ran for 3 weeks. A beautiful catalogue of all the winning entries was produced. First, second, third and 10 consolation prizes were given out in each of the three categories. The winners can be seen in the attached list.

 The KIWI Cup was held a day later on  21.05.08.  The Saints school boys won the annual Kiwi Cup against Raffles with a huge score of 29 to 0. Also for the curtain raiser between the saints C boys against Raffles, the saints won by 7 to 0,...both saints school teams played extremely well.

 The Annual Jim Weir Cup for the senior and mature members of the  SAA & ORA took place on 5 July, 2008 at the ST Andrews rugby field and the winners were again the SAINTS! Guest of Honour  was Mr. John Koh and the post match makan was held in the school canteen where there was much eating, drinking and camaraderie between the two sides.

The next major event was the  Annual dinner held in the Secondary School Hall on 30th August 2008. This was reported previously and is reproduced and attached to this message. In summary, it was a wonderful event, again coordinated by Ho Koon Leong, Patrick Pang and team. Guest of Honour was Donald Teo with a citation read by his son Justin. The food was excellently prepared by Chin Lee Restaurant and wines kindly donated by Derek Lee of Grand Vin WIne Merchants. It was a typically boisterous evening characterised by much singing which managed to raise funds for the SAA and culminated in an Auction of some of the Art Pieces from the Art Competition.

For Singapore’s inaugural F1 competition on 29th September, the SAA did not want to be left out and hosted an F1 party at the nightspot called Thumper at the Goodwood Park Hotel. Nearly sixty old boys and their wives or girlfirends convened at this venue to watch the race and share in the excitement with drinks and food provided by the SAA.

The SAA combined with the SAPTA to hold a Golf tournament on 23 Oct 2008. This was held at the Warren Country Club between 11.00 to 6.30pm and followed by a Dinner and Wine tasting cum Auction that evening. Our thanks go to the many supporters of this event who gave generously to raise funds for both our associations.

The Past versus Present Rugby game was held on 6th December.  Our Hon. Treasurer, Wong Ban Suan presented a signed ball to Mr Ong Peck Lye who was our Guest of Honour.

 The 2009 KIWI and JIM WEIR cups were held at Raffles Institution on 16th February

I would like to report happily that in the last two years of office, our current Management Committee has focused much activity on raising funds for the Alumni such that we can support more activities in the school, provide for more scholarships and take on projects to benefit the needy students with a greater degree of autonomy and independance. For the first time in years our current Alumni  coffers stands at $135,000.00.

We gave out 9 Sports Scholarships in 2008, 3 to Hockey boys Marcus Seah (1N3),

 Raphael Joseph (1N3), Darul Hafiz (1N1) and 6 to the rugby boys: Gurveer Singh  1B

 Marcus Tan   1B, Jerry Lim   1N1, Abdul Rauf   1N3, Ervin Ng   1D, Kyran Chew   1A

On SASS Teachers Day on August 29th, the Alumni was honoured to provide the roses and cactus plants which were given as gifts from the students to their teachers as a mark of appreciation and respect.

I would also like to acknowlege and place on record my thanks to two old boys who donated generously to the School to further the education of selected boys and teachers:

Understanding the Hearts and Minds of Boys                            

 Mr Lim Teck Cheng (old boy) donated $103,000 for this programme to cover the training cost of this programme by the secondary school to specialise in the way boys learn.

Kheng Whay Scholarship                                                 

 M/s 28 Holdings P L (Mr & Mrs Goh Khoon Lim) donated $50,000 with another $50,000 in honour of his mother, for highly achieving and needy students.

The most recent project the Alumni championed was the EASTER HAMPER project. MC members Goh Chong Hiang and Ronnie Chen sent out appeals to old boys to donate towards hampers containing essential foodstuffs and items that would be given out to needy students and their families. The response was overwhelming and we managed to raise more than three times our projected amount all funds of which will be dedicated to this group of students over the coming year.

Finally, the SAA would like to mourn the passing of many of our great Saints who contributed in so many ways to our Alumni and our school helping us to  grow closer and stronger as a Village unbroken. In particular I would like to mention:

• Harry Tan
• JB Jeyeratnam
• Teo Soo Chuan
• Tan Teck Meng

Woffles WU

President, SAA 2008/2009