Festive Fundraising for Peru 2018
Summer 2018 will see 81 Bancroftians and ten members of staff heading to Peru to work for local charity Aldea Yanapay. During their time, they will be undertaking the construction of outhouses containing showers and hygienic lavatories for a rural community which currently has no access to either. The group needs to fund the necessary materials and also hire some local expertise. Fund raising and the festive season was given a terrific kick start on Friday 1 December with “All I Want for Christmas is Peru!” an event which saw talented staff and pupils come together to raise over £4000.
A selection of Christmas favourites, and a few others, were performed with enthusiasm from the staff and expertise from the pupils with Miss Jones and Mr Hay on hand to give some “X Factor” style comments on the various acts. Members of the Maths Department kicked things off and Mr McGuiggan encouraged the audience onto their feet while he unleashed his inner punk star. Thanks to Mr Sugarman’s impeccable enunciation the words of A Fairytale of New York were, for once, perfectly audible while Miss Mead more than held her own in the Kirsty McColl part of the duet. Dr Hunn and Mr Channer changed the mood with a Bancroftian take on Armstrong and Miller’s Fighter Pilot sketches – the parents in the audience may have been bemused by their use of current school slang but the jokes were appreciated by the students. As well as taking on Simon Cowell’s ‘Mr Nasty’ mantle, Mr Hay, who had organised the event and is leading the Peru trips, gave us his own version on Santa Claus is Coming to Town” a la Bruce Springsteen. For many, the highlight of the evening was a Spice Girls’ tribute – great choreography and costumes from Misses Wainwright, Grimshaw, Prescott-Morrin, Korcz and Mrs Coyne. They were joined on stage by a group of adoring Spice Boys – an unannounced troupe of Misters Dickinson, Pollock, Raw, Ceeraz and Hitching.
The real talent of the evening came from the pupils. Special mentions must go to Ayaan (3E) and Abby (L6S). Although her partner for a duet was ill on the day, Ayaan still carried on as a solo act, while Abby stepped in at the very last moment to perform. The U4 boys, Theo, Ben, Dharun, Lewis, Manav and Arisht, threw themselves into Jingle Bell Rock. They have clearly spotted the opportunity for a new boy band to fill the void since One Direction’s retirement! As expected, Alex, Gauri, Pasha, Sonia and Varsah all sang and played beautifully.
Thank you to everyone for making this such a fantastically successful evening.
