ANOTHER FEATHER IN THE A.L.P.S. CAP
The 2008 edition of the Lyceum Bicycle Marathon has come and gone – and the whole event has put another multi-coloured feather in the cap of the Association of Lyceum Past Students.
ALPS’s complete involvement in the organisation and fund-raising activities to enhance the marathon’s proceeds in aid of Id-Dar tal-Providenza stood out even more than in previous years. Most Council members, with the quiet support of their wives, lent more than a hand in the activities both before and during the event, including the collection of sponsorships, lottery ticket sales, publicity, manning of cash points on all three days and the organisation of a Walk-a-Mile event on the Sunday of the marathon.
At the end of it all, ALPS could take satisfaction from a cash donation of €1,000, plus €1,550 in ticket sales for the two lotteries at Christmastime and April (thanks in no small way, of course, to the countless ALPS members and friends who bought them), the procurement of over €3,400 worth of prizes for the lotteries, the donation of several very attractive hampers for raffles, and the placement of an advertisement in Malta’s leading Sunday paper and for two weekends in the Jum il-Mulej leaflets in all churches.
The gratitude of Dar tal-Providenza Director Mgr Lawrence Gatt, repeatedly expressed both publicly and privately, was more than enough to put paid to it all.
LYCEUM BICYCLE MARATHON LOTTERY WINNERS
The top prize of a weekend break for two persons at the SAS Radisson Golden Sands Resort & Spa in the Lyceum Bicycle Marathon lottery drawn on 25th April were Mr and Mrs G. Sammut with ticket number 3044. Mr M. Galea won two return air tickets to Rome (excluding taxes) with ticket number 14775, while the weekend break for two persons at the Pergola Hotel, Mellieha, went to Ms R. Spiteri with ticket 16530.
Mr J.A. Delicata won a Fuji Finepix A820 camera with ticket number 834, Mr B. Cauchi won a radio-controlled boat from Simon Models with ticket number 18874, Mr L. Scicluna won a voucher for €59.40 (Lm25.50) from The Kitchen Shop of San Gwann with ticket number 9168, and Mr A. Micallef won a €50 voucher from D’Andre Footwear, also of San Gwann, with ticket number 3022.
It is gratifying to point out that there was an ALPS fingerprint in the procurement of most of these prizes.
OPERETTA GALORE AT CASINO MALTESE
An audience of well over 230 packed the main hall of the Casino Maltese in Valletta to capacity for a very successful Serata all’Operetta on Saturday 26th April. The evening was organised by Joe Fenech, ALPS Cultural Commission Chairman and ALPS Choir Master.
The concert featured sopranos Karen Camilleri and Louiselle Pace Gouder, mezzo-soprano Connie Frances Zerafa, tenor Bernard Busuttil and baritone Lewis Cassar. Accompanied in most numbers by a very enthusiastic ALPS Choir, they sang 20 excerpts from 15 very popular operettas written by a wide-ranging list of composers.
These included Cin-Ci-La and Il Paese dei Campanelli by Carlo Lombardo/Virgilio Ranzato, Boccaccio by Franz von Suppè, La Duchessa del Bal Tabarin by Leon Bard, Il Conte di Lussemburgo, Eva, La Danza delle Libellule and La Vedova Allegra by Franz Lehàr, Scugnizza by Mario Costa, The Geisha by Sidney Jones, Al Cavallino Bianco by Ralph Benatzky/Robert Stolz, and La Bajadera and La Principessa della Czarda by Emerich Kalmann. The first part of the concert was brought to a close by two very-well-received excerpts from It-Twajba Susanna, composed by Jean Gilbert.
The ALPS Choir was trained by Yolanda Micallef. The soloists rehearsed with Cynthia Genovese, who was at the piano throughout the performance.
Everybody came away from the evening with a very visible sense of satisfaction. For the audience it had been money well spent. For the singers, especially the choir, it had been another enjoyable, novel experience.
Well done, all! And would it be too much to ask for more of the same soon?
FEAST OF SAN GORG PRECA
As has already been announced, the Association of Lyceum Past Students will be celebrating the feast of its patron San Gorg Preca at the St Anne Chapel at Pwales Valley on Saturday 10th May.
ALPS Spiritual Director Fr William Bartolo will celebrate Mass at 5 p.m. with the participation of the ALPS Choir, for which it will be the first Mass.
See you there …
IN CONCORDANCE ABOUT CONCORDIA
An appreciable number of ALPS members and friends on 25th April took up an offer by SMS Travel Ltd to spend some very enjoyable hours touring the very modern cruise liner m.v. Costa Concordia in Grand Harbour. The group was very efficiently taken around by the agency’s Mr Joe Mifsud.
The tour, complete with lunch, was a teaser to whet up undecided appetites for a seven-day ALPS Mediterranean cruise on the Concordia starting on 10th October 2008. The whole idea was made even more enticing with the on-board announcement that on the strength of its increasing membership and resultant buying power, ALPS has managed to negotiate a further reduction of prices for the cruise (see attached flyer). The few cabins still available will be allocated on first-come, first-served basis.
After the visit everybody was in concordance with the opinion that the Costa Concordia is indeed a magnificent ship with all possible amenities to make any cruise thoroughly enjoyable.
WANTED: BUSINESSMEN’S HELP
There are still thousands of surviving past students of The Lyceum in all imaginable walks of Maltese life. Needless to say, a good number of them have their own businesses.
So how about most of these former schoolmates (all would be Utopic!) coming forward to help the Association issue its magazine, The Chanticleer, after an absence of three years? The lack of advertising revenue is the only stumbling block standing in the way of this dream – there is enough material to fill up the pages.
All businessmen (not just Lyceum past students) would do well to keep in mind that the thousands of ALPS members and friends who will be receiving The Chanticleer will be asked to take their welcome business to the advertisers – so it’s really a win-win situation on all fronts.
ONE LAST TRY?
This is a last-ditch effort to get ALPS members or friends to join the list of others who have already submitted ideas for the ALPS 15th anniversary celebrations that will culminate in March 2009. The least number of ideas submitted so far have concerned the 15th anniversary logo, so that is what we are more interested in. But of course, any other idea, even for events, can still be considered before we have to draw a line.
PROVIDENTIAL HELP NEEDED
During the Lyceum Bicycle Marathon, Id-Dar tal-Providenza Director Mgr Lawrence Gatt asked ALPS News to help propagate an appeal for part-time volunteers to come forward and offer their help at the home.
Of course all help would be welcome, but what he specifically had in mind at this point in time was clerical staff with a working knowledge of word processing.
Any potential volunteers are asked to contact the Home’s Administrator Mr Anton Vella on telephone 21 463686. As Mgr Gatt is wont to say, expect no payment except from Above.
FRIENDS, AHOY!
A recent message on the ALPS website (that’s also what it’s there for) came from Lyceum past student Eddie Turner who lives in Salmon Arm, Canada. He would dearly love to hear from anyone who can remember him from his Lyceum years 1939-45. Eddie’s e-mail address is eturner@sunwave.net.
He recalls that he first attended The Lyceum in Merchants Street, Valletta, then Spinola Palace in Sliema (or was it St Julian’s?), then St Patrick’s in Sliema and, if his memory serves him well, a few final months in School Street, Hamrun. Isn’t it amazing how young students had to get around before The Lyceum was centralised in the present building in Hamrun in 1955?
Please be influenced by Eddie’s example and make better use of the ALPS website to get in touch with former schoolmates or share anecdotes with all those who have attended The Lyceum before and after you, down to the present. The website address is www.alpsmalta.com
STILL ROOM FOR SPIRITUAL RETREAT
Although all double rooms at Manresa House in Gozo have been taken up for the ALPS spiritual retreat on 30th May to 1st June, there are still some single rooms. Please contact Alex Borg (see masthead for details).
MEMBERSHIP FEES
Membership fees are now payable at the rates of €11.65 per year or €69.90 for life membership. Fees are to be sent to ALPS Treasurer David Abela at “Juniper”, Triq Ganni Vella, Tal-Qattus, Birkirkara. His telephone number is 2748 7693.
E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Several ALPS members and friends keep suggesting that ALPS News be distributed by e-mail rather than by costly conventional mail. But Secretary-General Alex Borg is invariably barraged by the electronic Postmaster with returned e-mails.
Members and friends who have changed their e-mail addresses, or who have had Internet recently installed on their computers, are earnestly asked to send in their updated addresses to info@alpsmalta.com.