Singathon 2004<br/><br/>

The parish will hold the annual Singathon on October 2, 2004. When members of the Singathon committee were telling me that they intend to change the venue from the parish hall to an outside facility, my initial concern was one of cost effectiveness. We do not have to pay rent if we run the programmes in our own Don Bosco Hall.<br/><br/>

Their advice to me was that we cannot accommodate an audience over 400, as that will contravene and violate the Fire Safety Ordinance. However, from our past experience, it is common that we have an extra audience of one to two hundred people. For fire safety concern and the sake of our parish, we have no alternative but to hold the Singathon in another arena. Finally, out of several suggestions, we came to the conclusion that the event will be held in the Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts Theatre. This venue has all the facilities to enable a high standard performance. It is the hall of a secondary school especially for the culture of arts and has a capacity of 600 seats. Moreover, the school is a subsidiary of the Toronto Catholic School Board.<br/><br/>

The cost for the arena and its provided maintenance personnel is $2,700. The rent for lighting and audio equipment is an additional $1,200. To balance this extra expenditure, the committee has calculated that the entrance fee should be $12 for an adult and $8 for a child.<br/><br/>

When compared to previous years, many parishioners might think that the expenditure has increased. However, I consider it as a necessity and worthwhile to hold the Singathon in this arena. Members (all come from our youth parishioners) of the committee must have thought of this increased expenditure. I trust their making of this decision which has been passed through deep pondering.<br/><br/>

I sincerely urge all of you to generously support the Singathon and all its performances.