Remember chalk?

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Thamu primary school

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Monzo examination

Media Release (photos attached)
18 March 2008
Remember chalk?

In most Kiwi classrooms these days, the blackboard is about as common as the mortarboard: replaced by overhead projectors and whiteboards, which in turn have been superseded by powerpoint presentations and other tools of the digital age.

Chalk and blackboards are still the order of the day at the schools set up by Sir Edmund Hillary’s Himalayan Trust, but not for much longer, if a fundraising initiative set up by leading business events organisers The Knowledge Gym is successful.

Directors Mike Doughty and Jody Bloomfield say The Knowledge Gym wanted to do something that both honoured Sir Ed’s remarkable life and tied in with their own focus on education and training.

“Someone suggested we provide equipment for the schools Sir Ed established for the children of the Nepalese sherpas, so we rang the Himalayan Trust and asked them what they needed,” Jody says.

“To be honest, I was expecting them to say computers, or some sort of high-tech learning aid, but the first thing they came back with was whiteboards and felt pens.”

Jody says it will cost $12,000 to fit out all the classrooms, with more than $3,000 in the kitty to date, thanks to the generosity of businesspeople attending the recent “Knowledge Workouts” given by Allan Pease.

“We’re looking to raise the balance by June, so we can get the new equipment in place before winter sets in. We’ve got several more events planned between April and June, which will give us an opportunity to canvass our members, and we’ll also be donating a portion of every new or renewed subscription taken out in the next couple of months.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to give some practical assistance to people who would benefit from it, and to keep alive the memory of a great New Zealander.”

For more information on this initiative, and how you can get involved, visit
www.theknowledgegym.com/kgym/himalayantrust/

ENDS

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