St George’s Preparatory School’s parent-teacher association is pulling out all the stops to raise $100,000 to build a multifunctional sports court the entire community can enjoy.Preparations are now underway for a massive fundraiser on May 11, the Olympiad sports-themed community fun day.The hope is to build a new sports court that will be open to the St George’s community to use after hours.A new building project will see the school lose its only concrete surface, currently used by students for tennis, basketball, skipping, netball and other sporting events.Plans to replace it with a new sports court that will be open to the St George’s community for use after hours, are now before the Development Applications Board.The school family has raised $42,000 toward its goal over the past three years, PTA president Marlo Santiago said.The funds were raised through a series of raffles, pizza lunches, movie and bingo nights as well as soup sales at PTA meetings during the school year.A number of sponsors have also committed proceeds from other events to boost the fund including the Argus Walk the Walk and the upcoming Urban Foot Race on April 28 in St George’s.The Urban Foot Race is part of the Island Challenge Series, organised by Aideen Ratteray Pryse, Reid Robinson and Jason Correia. St George’s Prep will provide 20 volunteers to assist as marshals for the event.Funds were also donated by Butterfield & Vallis and the Arthur Morris Group of Companies.“We have been quoted in the region of $100,000 for the multipurpose hard surfaced outdoor sports court which will be fenced in. The plans have been drawn by Terry Bower and they have been submitted to the Planning Department,” said Ms Santiago.The school hosted a number of fundraising events for other charities while pushing to reach their own target, she said.Those efforts saw donations made to Hurricane Sandy victims and victims of the tsunami disaster in Japan.“The purpose of the community fun day is to bring the families and friends of the school and the community together for some healthy fun, fellowship and competition and to demonstrate the sports that they will be able to gain and benefit from once we have the court,” Ms Santiago said.“We have a fabulous gym teacher, Ms Catherine Godet, who teaches the children as many sports as she can. She also provides free after-school clubs to teach skills for netball, field hockey and cricket.”The fun day runs from 2pm to 6pm and will feature netball and skipping demonstrations and workshops as part of the line-up of activities.“We have an amazing PTA executive team this year who have been working tireless to support our parents, teachers and our students,” said Ms Santiago.She also commended school principal Mary Lodge and staff both past and present for their contributions over the years.The highlight of the day will be a series of ten Olympiad-style events featuring six teams with six participants on each.Premier Craig Cannonier, a member of the school alumni, will formally open the event at 3.30pm.He will be joined by other former students who will judge the competition which ends with a prize presentation. The day culminates with a fish fry at 5pm.Ms Santiago said: “The parental and community feedback we have received thus far has been positive and supportive.”The project includes building new classrooms and renovating the school’s bathrooms to upgrade the facilities.Ms Santiago added: “The sports court will provide our children with a hard surface on which to skip and play netball (at the moment they play on the grass) as well as be exposed to tennis and basketball out in the fresh air.“The sports court will also be open to the community to use after hours and on weekends.”She concluded: “We have approximately $60,000 more dollars to raise to make the sports court a reality for the school and the St George’s community.“With this event we hope to build corporate sponsor relationships to make this goal attainable.”The Fun Day is open to all. For more information or to find out how to take part, contact PTA member Anita Belvin, ajbelvin@gmail.com, or Ms Santiago, sts@logic.bm.