Date:
__________________
To: St Mary’s
School of Sagada [SMSS] alumni and friends;
Friends of Sagada folks and other hinterland communities in
Northern
Philippines;
Episcopal Church Congregations;
Corporations looking for school beneficiaries of tax
deductible donations;
Sympathizers of efforts by the less endowed or less
fortunate in life to
educate themselves and catch up with mainstream society.
Re: St. Mary’s
School of Sagada [SMSS], Mountain Province, Philippines.
Greetings!
Alumni and friends of
SMSS are engaged in a humanitarian effort towards rehabilitating and
sustaining the operations of SMSS so that it will continue to be a
source of quality education for indigenous tribes of Northern
Philippines collectively known as Igorots.
Established by
American Missionaries of the Episcopal Church in 1904, SMSS played a
significant role in educating and improving the lives of an impressive
number of Igorots. Through quality education such as what was offered at
SMSS, legions of Igorot sons and daughters were able to leapfrog from
subsistence-economy-related livelihoods to become nurses, doctors,
teachers, accountants, engineers, architects, seamen, artists,
musicians, entrepreneurs, business managers and the like in the world’s
major labor markets.
Hinterland Igorots in
Northern Luzon, continue to look towards SMSS among a few affordable
quality schools in the Cordillera mountain ranges of northern
Philippines, as the best hope for their children to catch up with
their lowland countrymen and the rest of the world.
However, overtaken by
adverse developments in recent years, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern
Philippines [EDNP], the administrators of SMSS, announced that it could
no longer sustain operations of the school beyond year 2005.
Cognizant of the
importance of the school in the socio-economic improvement of their
people – still categorized among the poorest of the poor based on
Philippine key economic indicators – alumni and friends of SMSS opposed
the plan to close the school. They were able to convince EDNP that a
better option to closing the school was for them to take over the school
administration. The school remains a property of EDNP.
Subsequently, alumni
and friends had the school incorporated as a non-profit corporation
under the laws of the Philippines allowing them to explore new
directions and funding resources, autonomous from the church which was,
and still is, likewise struggling with financial difficulties.
SMSS alumni and
friends in the United States, thereafter, organized themselves and
applied for a tax-exempt public charity foundation status under section
501 (c) (3) of the U. S. Internal Revenue Code which was granted to them
effective May 4, 2004. As such, donations/contributions to SMSS Alumni
and Friends Foundation are tax deductible under section 170 of the
Code. Likewise, bequests, devises, transfers or gifts made to SMSS
Alumni and Friends Foundation are also entitled to tax deductions under
section 2055, 2106 or 2522 of the Code.
Much has been accomplished at SMSS since then in
terms of keeping the school afloat; but much remains to be done. A more
detailed presentation on what has so far been done and what has yet to
be done maybe accessed in the website “www.smssfoundation.com”
particularly in the “Five Year Development Plan”, the “Help Options”,
“Pictorials” and “Alumni” pages of the website. Please visit that
website.
This year, the focus
of fund-raising efforts by SMSS alumni and friends is the “Sponsor A
Faculty Chair Project” (please see attached brochure). Thus we, SMSS
alumni and friends in North America, will try to rally support to this
project during our 3rd reunion and business meeting to be
held at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Flushing, Queens, New York, on
August 17-19, 2007.
Our conference theme
this year is: “Serving Our
People, Teaching Beneath God’s Wings”. To commemorate the event as well as to help generate funds for the
“Sponsor A Faculty Project”, we will be coming out with a Souvenir
Program for which we are soliciting ads/greetings subscriptions (Please
see attached flyers).
We fervently pray
that our “Sponsor A Faculty Chair Project” and/or our Souvenir Program
fund raising efforts will merit your favorable consideration
individually or under whatever charitable-donation-related programs that
your congregation, company or organization are currently engaged in.
Rest assured that
your donations to St. Mary’s School of Sagada will be used for molding
responsible peace loving citizens of the world in accordance with its
mission statement: “TO BE A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL WITH STRONG EMPHASIS
ON SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY; WELL EQUIPPED LABORATORY AND LIBRARY; HIGHLY
QUALIFIED AND WELL PAID FACULTY; AND SERVING AS TRAINING GROUND FOR
FUTURE LEADERS.”
Thank you very much
and we hope to hear from you.
Edwin Abeya
Chairman, SMSS Sponsor A Faculty Chair Committee
Email: eabeya@encore-ng.com
Phone: 240-505-0551
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