THE Kingston College Old Boys’ Association (KCOBA) has joined forces with the Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI) to raise much-needed funds for the all-boys’ school.

The effort is a collaboration of two programmes — KCOBA’s newly created ‘Small Change… Big Difference Campaign’, and a relaunch of ICWI’s ‘Fortis Plan’.

According to Pat Bignall, a member of the fund-raising committee, the ‘Small Change… Big Difference Campaign’ was designed with the present economic constraints in mind.

“We want to use your small change to fill our baskets,” she said at the launch of both programmes last Friday at ICWI headquarters in New Kingston.

“We’ve set a conservative target of $2 million, but the needs are great at Kingston College, so we are asking people not to be conservative in giving,” Bignall said.

The campaign, she said, is being run islandwide and is scheduled to end in May.

Labelled collection cans have been distributed and people wishing to donate can also make deposits to an account at any Scotiabank.

Dennis Lalor, the ICWI chairman and a KC old boy, explained that the insurance company will donate five per cent of all premiums collected from clients who purchase the Fortis Plan.

Funds collected through both programmes will be used to upgrade the school’s science labs and furnish a container already acquired for use as stores for the Cadet Corps.

“The Cadet Corps instils discipline, and if we can get more boys involved it will create a better Jamaica,” said Bignall.

That point was made in much broader terms earlier by KC board chairman Professor Stephen Vasciannie, who also spoke to the academic performance of the school’s students.

Vasciannie said that while students have been doing well, “we need a special drive to improve academic performance at KC”.

He also expressed hope that the challenges being faced by the school in appointing a new principal will be overcome soon.

Vasciannie’s reference was to KC’s inability to appoint one of two highly qualified applicants because of the education ministry’s insistence that all high school principals must have a teaching certificate.

Both applicants — lawyer and financial specialist Dennis Richards, and University of the West Indies lecturer in history at the Department of History and Archaeology, Dr Daive Dunkley — were rejected by the Teachers Services Commission.

Lalor, in his address, encouraged the school to acquire more property in order to expand its educational and recreational programmes.

“Our goal should be to remedy all the ills at KC in five years,” he said, adding that he wanted to contribute more to the school through the ICWI Foundation.

Lalor also advised the KCOBA to use its vast network to forge alliances with overseas entities that are willing to assist educational institutions in countries like Jamaica.

“Mind expansion is what is required,” he said.

Dr Ray Fraser, president of the KCOBA, in his welcome and opening remarks, highlighted the fact that the Old Boys’ Association “has a history of contributing to every major project at KC”.

He praised Lalor for relaunching the Fortis Plan and accepted a donation from the ICWI chairman towards the ‘Small Change… Big Difference Campaign’.