KUCHING: The Ex-Highians’ Association Kuching (alumi of Kuching High School) will be hosting the Back to School Fund Raising Sales on March 4, from 8am to 12pm at Kuching High School. The organising committee would like to call upon all former students (ex-Highians) of Kuching High School, school’s teachers and students as well as the public to join the event.
Steven Lau Ken Min, the organising chairperson said, “This objective of this event is to provide an opportunity for all former students to come back to their alma mater to recall their younger days in school. Also, this event aims to raise fund for the new school gate – Gate of Alumni.”
He added, “I would also like to invite corporate organisations as well as alumni to participate in the event by setting up stalls so that there are varieties of food and goods to be sold. Besides, we are working very closely with the school principal, teachers, students and parents to make this event an unforgettable one.”
Chairperson of the Ex-Highians’ Association, Pauline Gan Guet Beng said that, “Kuching High School, since its establishment in 1963, has gone through the phenomenon of wear and tear. The school experienced fire destruction ten years ago.
Its redevelopment project was fully completed in 2015. However, the previous school gate, as a contrast of the new buildings, looks very rundown. Therefore, the Ex-Highians’ Association Kuching has initiated the school gate rebuilding project since year 2015.”
“Named “Gate of Alumni”, the new school gate is a form of upmost gratitude by all ex-Highians towards the school as we have spent 5 to 6 precious years of our secondary school studies in Kuching High School.
I am very pleased to see that the construction work finally kicked off in November last year. After months of hard work, the new school gate will be completed by end of February 2018,” she added. Upon request by the Ex-Highians’ Association, Singapore-bound architect, Png Siak Kheng, who is also an ex-Highian, was involved in designing the new school gate without any charges. Besides, the structure drawing was contributed by Francis Wee Boon Liang, the structure engineering of the project.
The structure design, which is the wave form arch, symbolizes good talents from the school being nurtured in continuous manner. The tip of the 2 wave forms being purposely not meeting each other, intended to create a dynamic feeling symbolizes the dynamic spirit of the school. The Gate of Alumni is not merely a gate, but an architecture, which carries values that the Association would like fellow Highians to adhere.
The new school gate’s outlook truly signifies the schools’ values of reflecting the past, enlightening the present and embracing the future. On another note, Yeo Eng Chung, the project leader of the Gate of Alumni has truly led by example by gathering his classmates of year 1976 which then collected a total amount of RM54,519.76 .
He mentioned, “We have been discussing about this since last year. Each of us contributed a small amount and it became such significant figure. We would like to show to our juniors that they can also do the same thing – graduates from each year could contribute in groups. The collected amount will be fully contributed to the project fund.”
Pauline also added, “The total construction cost is approximately RM600,000. However, we are still short of RM300,000.
Hence, we would like to invite all alumni to generously contribute in cash or in kind. The completion of the Gate of Alumni will foresee benefiting our juniors, i.e. students of Kuching High School for the coming generations and to be truly proud to be Highians.
For more information on the event or purchase of tickets, please contact Steven Lau Ken Min at 012-8083309 or Michael Yii at 012- 3110106 or visit Ex-Highians’ facebook page www.facebook.com/ Highians.
