New Straits Times, June 24, 2004
Raising funds for 100-year-old St John's

By Suryani Dalip

SEKOLAH Menengah Kebangsaan St John Kuala Lumpur, popularly known as St John's Institution, turned 100 on Jan 18.

Like any other old building, the school needs to undergo restoration due to decay.

The process involves a large sum of money, in this case RM1 million.

To raise this sum, several fundraising activities have been planned until January next year.

One of them involves the sale of limited edition 2D art pieces that was launched by the Raja Muda of Perak Raja Dr Nazrin Shah at the school hall in Jalan Bukit Nanas recently.

Also present were Federal Territory Education Department science education division head Alwi Abdul Jalil, 100 years anniversary celebration committee chairman Datuk Abdul Adzim Zabidi, school board of trustees chairman Megat Mizan Nicholas Denney and principal Peter Yii.

During the visit, Raja Nazrin, who is also the school's royal patron, pledged a cash donation of RM100,000 for the school's development fund.

Abdul Adzim said the art piece was a 2D composition of the school building made from paper, and has the signatures of five former students who have become prominent public figures - Raja Nazrin, Sultan of Selangor
Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Education Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein and Provincial Visitor Reverend Brother Peter Foo.

He said the organisers had produced 1,000 art pieces priced at RM5,000 each.

"There are five special pieces - number 1, 88, 100, 888 and 1,000. They will be auctioned during a fundraising dinner on July 17," he added.

Abdul Adzim said other activities included the sale of a coffee-table book on the history of St John's Institution, a charity golf tournament and a musical theatre performance.

Elaborating on the book, he said it was written by former student Ho Kay Tat.

"It will be launched next month and will be sold at RM100 each. There will be 10,000 copies in the market."

On the stage performance, Abdul Adzim said they were currently negotiating with a production house from London, England.

"We are thinking of bringing them to Malaysia. Proceeds from ticket sales will go towards the fund."

Abdul Azim said once enough money was raised, restoration work would start.

"We are looking at the middle of next year. There is a lot needed to be done."

He said the building was a heritage building. Certain parts of it have decayed over the years.

He said they had also received complaints on the school's condition from the community.

"We did a thorough check on the building last year and found several areas which needed restoration and upgrading."

He said the wiring system was old and needed to be upgraded too, while the football field needed proper maintenance.

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