Fundación “Patricio Zammit gives awards

Patricio Zammit Foundation grants 54 delivery and aims to create a future college

September is probably the most financial straining month for most parents with children. It’s time for back to school, back to sports, back to music, back to whatever other activities children enjoy outside of school hours. Many families in Torrevieja, with children at Primary school, benefit from a ‘bono’ book scheme which covers the majority of cost of new school books and supplies, which can total close to or over €200 each year. Then we have new clothes for school, shoes, school uniforms, books, backpacks, payment for sports clubs, music classes and the list goes on and on.

One local organisation that helps the young is the Patricio Zammit Foundation who offer special grants for school and aim to create a future college in Torrevieja. Last Tuesday they presented 54 scholarships worth € 8,500 for children from families with financial needs to help fund their studies, especially the purchase of books. It was an event organized by Patricio Zammit Foundation, whose purpose is to collaborate with teaching, especially children, usually from families whose socioeconomic worries and needs.

The grants awarded are €80 euros for children from kindergarten (which typically cover the cost a course book for this stage), €100 for elementary school children, €200 for high school and three scholarships of €600 for university. According to its statutes, the funds available to the Foundation should serve to facilitate the teaching of the needy. To this end, the foundation is looking towards raising funds in the coming years to create a new school, possibly opening with just two or three classrooms offering specialised subjects, if the necessary permits can be obtained.

Given the magnitude of this objective, for the moment, and for the previous four years, they have decided to award these scholarships. Support is provided with 70% of the income-produced from real estate, stocks and shares. In Torrevieja, Patricio Zammit has a street dedicated to him in the town centre for his services to the city. Patricio Zammit created his Foundation around 1956 and it has been an important institution ever since.

For those interested in access to these scholarships, you must put in your request in early May 2012. The Foundation's headquarters is located at Calle Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, 43. After the scale of the applicants is known, aid will be awarded the next school year, in September 2012. Patricio Zammit was a lover of Torrevieja, who was a bachelor all his life enjoyed a very prosperous life. He planned to marry a lady in Santander, Granada but died hours before his wedding, celebrating it in "articulo mortis." Maria Aguilar, which was the name his wife stopped having contact with the Foundation in 1986, so they have asked a detective to investigate and certify the death of Aguilar, in order that the money, land and stocks that she inherited, become part of the funds of the Foundation, increasing the assets of the same so they can extend aid to many others in the community. However, the school's primary goal remains the establishment of a school of their own.

Keith Nicol