The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) on Friday last week reminded that it keeps up to its corporate citizenship responsibility when it donated $5,000.00 to The Sir Howard Scholarship Fund which was established in 2002 by the Montserrat Festival Committee to provide scholarships for worthy Montserratians in arts and commerce.
Miss Lucille Irish, Manager of the local RBC branch delivered the cheque to Mrs. Claudia Skerrit, chairman of the fund, deputising for the patron, Sir Howard Fergus.
Miss Irish while delivering the cheque explained briefly, “sometimes, we get letters from organizations – we look at them and see which one we wish to give funds to for the year.”
Sir Howard told The Montserrat Reporter in his effort to ensure that the bank gets due publicity, that as a because of the difficult financial times, resulting in the difficulty of raising adequate funds to provide scholarships for worthy Montserratians in arts and commerce, as they award bursaries and scholarship in these fields, treating other areas on their merit.
He said, seeking assistance from the bank, because of the “economic squeeze, our major fundraising activity these days is annual dinner and the sums realized are inadequate,” explaining, “our major fundraising activity these days is an annual dinner, and the sums realised are inadequate.”
The bank manager said that they chose to make the donation, saying they told the fund patron, “it would be something good for the bank to give some donation for 2013…”
Mrs. Skerritt while accepting the donation expressed the funds appreciation. “I must say congratulations and express appreciation to Royal Bank of Canada who has been supporting the Sir Howard fund from its inception,” she said.
She explained that during this year they received several applications, and awarded “bursaries to three persons. Omari Allen who is pursuing a degree in IT, as well as we have just donated one to Nadine Sweeney, pursuing a BS in Nursing, and Shernell Burns, a degree in sports management.”
She explained further that they have given bursaries to persons who are in need of assistance, particularly to setup their own businesses, pointing out that the main interest of the fund is, ‘really in the arts and in culture.”
In encouraging persons to support the fund, Sir Howard points out their pleasure to report, “that over the years, scholarships have been awarded to over ten persons, some of whom are making significant contributions to the society.”
“The Fund,” he says, “is an important instrument of self-help and community effort.”
