Accra, Sept. 10, GNA-The Bogoso St Augustine’s Past Students Association (BAPSA) in Ghana has teamed up with its overseas branches in North America and Europe to procure and donate two sets of regimental brass band instruments to their alma mater.
The donation of the instruments aims to uplift the school’s visibility through music, promote hands-on training in music, enrich social activities on campus and generally make the school attractive within the Bogoso community.
At a colourful presentation ceremony at Bogoso, the national executives of BAPSA handed over the instruments, valued at Ghc50,000.00 to school authorities and over 1,000 students gathered at the school Church Hall.
The instruments included sets of trumpets, cornets, French horns, flugelhorns, trombones, euphoniums, tubas and bugles, along with two sets of parade drums.
Both BAPSA and school officials said the instruments had come to fill a huge void, as Augusco (Bogoso St Augustine’s College) has had to rent equipment or hire bands from its thin resources, for social and extra curriculum events over the years.
The Chairman of BAPSA, Mr Kwamena Ewusi-Brown charged both the authorities and students to make the best use of the instruments.
“We have had two significant homecoming experiences here on this campus during the past couple of years…..and it is so sad that on both occasions, we had to endure the embarrassment and inconveniences of having to hire a band from either Prestea or Tarkwa for our programmes,” Mr Ewusi-Brown said.
He said those incidents greatly influenced and inspired BASPA’s decision to acquire the instruments, the Chairman noted.
He said besides the pursuit of their academic routines and goals, most schools of similar pedigree as Augusco had regimental and other musical groups that helped to enrich their extra curriculum and recreational pastimes.
“In our time for instance, schools like St Johns in Sekondi hit the limelight and became enviable among the national student population, not only through academic scholarship but even more, through the popularity of its school bands – Mathew Chapter 5 and The Saints. I can still recall the sheer frenzy and excitement amongst students when in our days, Chapter 5 came over to perform for us at the Augusco Old Site,” said Ewusi-Brown.
Mr Benjamin Ackaah-Gyasi, the second Vice Chairman of BAPSA, said he was personally delighted that a dream nurtured by the executives of the Association barely two years ago had come to fruition.
“These musical instruments we present to you today come from contributions of the Old Students here in Ghana and our compatriot old students in North America specifically in the United States,” he explained and charged the school to take the greatest care of the equipment.
“We expect you to take good care of these instruments, so you may leave them for other students to benefit from their use and thereby promote the image of the school and its students among second cycle schools and the within the Bogoso Community at large,” he said.
Mrs. Felicia Ackaah-Gyasi, a senior alumnus of the school, urged the new generation of Augusco students to be mindful of peer pressure, eschew the tendency of copying blindly and endeavour to take full advantage of modern learning aides like the internet (which older BAPSA members were not privileged to have), and the abundance of information provided by social media.
Rev. Fr. Ignatius Miah Whajah, the Headmaster, after receiving the instruments on behalf of the school administration and the students, expressed gratitude to BAPSA for its continuous support to the school.
He gave the assurance that the instruments would be properly maintained to achieve its deserved purpose and entreated the alumni of the school to sustain its interest in and support for Augusco.
BAPSA has, over the past six years, extended considerable support to the alma mater in the form of projects and donations, among which are the construction of a urinal block, electricity extension to the School Church Building, the donation of a corn milling machine, the donation of a state-of-the-art multi-purpose printer, lawn mower and a poly-tank for water storage.
Bogoso St Augustine’s Senior High School used to be an integral part of St Augustine’s College, Cape Coast, which simultaneously offered two different courses, namely Secondary School courses and a Teacher Training programme.
In 1957, when the Catholic Church thought it prudent to separate the two courses, the Teacher Training section was transferred from Cape Coast to Bogoso in the Western Region and was later converted into a secondary school.
Bogoso St Augustine’s Senior High School, a relatively unsung but proud second cycle institution, had churned out hundreds of top grade technocrats and academics over the years.
GNA