Last November, the Foundation invited students seeking funding for their various clubs and endeavours into the socalled Dragons’ Den. The evening of presentations, planned and executed both intelligently and professionally, made one thing very clear: the kids are alright! Once again, NTCI students proved that they are reaching for the stars as academics, athletes and musicians.

The groups applying for grants gave some background on their respective clubs, and explained what they hoped to do with the grant money and why they felt they deserved funding.:

• The Robotics Club needed funds to purchase the materials for creating, constructing, programming and testing a robot. Most of us on the Foundation have a less than perfect grasp of the field of robotics, but we all agreed to partial funding. (Not surprisingly, the club did well at the VEX Robotics Competition.)
• Graffiti, the newspaper we all remember fondly, has now expanded its scope to include a digital version and made two separate presentations. One came from Digital Graffiti, asking for money towards various technological resources, including camcorders and software, to help launch this new digital edition of the newspaper. Print Graffiti asked for help with its printing costs—difficult for a free school newspaper to fund on its own.
• The Symphony Orchestra and Choral Ensemble asked for help in funding an enriched workshop, available to all music students, towards the goal of performing Mozart’s Requiem at this year’s Maytime Melodies. (It was the 70th edition and a landmark achievement, which you can see and hear at  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2nR66Y54e5Wzm-9z1mEJl6hJyYIGS12w.)

So what did the Dragons’ Den actually agree to? Because of
the generosity of your donations, the Foundation was able to
give Digital Graffiti $450.00 and print Graffiti $900.00. The
Orchestra and Chorus received $1,000.00, and the Robotics
Club $200.00. In all, the Foundation gave $2,550.00 towards
programs that were not only deserving but also representative
of the Foundation’s mission.