Margaret REES (1952)

“In the early 1950s, the campus of SCEGGS Darlinghurst was very different to what exists today. One notably absent structure then was the “Yellow Building” (now known as the Old Girls’ Building), and the memory that looms largest for me was the Yellow Building project. Raising funds for this building was one of the main focuses in (if memory serves me well!) in 1951. My dear little mum & I were talking through ideas for raising money, at home, & my mother (always with one eye on business!) came up with what we thought would be good idea to try at the fete, & if it worked could raise quite a bit of money. Mum ran it past Miss Chisholm, she agreed and so for some weeks before the fete, we went ahead preparing for it.

As I mentioned earlier, mum, ever interested in business, decided to look outside the School for inspiration. She suggested that, as there was a microphone operating all day  with  someone giving out notices & information about what was going  on all day, we could  offer ALL those businesses from whom the School constantly bought goods and supplies, advertising space during the day .

So, Mum set about forming a sales spiel which would be appropriate to approach these suppliers by telephone. She gave them plenty of options which seemed to please them, because it enabled the businesses to feel more involved in the whole project, for which we were appealing for their support, of the new “Yellow” building.

They were invited to pay about the equivalent of $1.80 per line and had the option of writing their own “ad” or leaving it up to us write it for them. I was nominated to pitch this opportunity to the School’s suppliers over the phone.

I do remember very well, for some weeks before Fete day, spending my lunch hour every day  in the  school office with Miss Spicer or Miss Burton, working my way through a stack of school suppliers’ invoices, contacting them all!

The response to this project was really positive and I remember feeling very excited about the interest of suppliers like Coca-Cola and Sargents Pies taking part.

The Fete day arrived, a glorious Sydney day and my dear little mum (who I am sure was just as excited as me) was seated at a table with microphone at the top of Barham front steps , from where she commanded a good view of everything.

So there she sat for the whole day and along with the multitude of announcements, being fair to her advertisers she stuck to her timetable  and read out the ads and jingles, many of which she had written herself.

It was a wonderful and very memorable day, at the end of which Miss Chisholm called me to present the biggest bunch of flowers I had ever seen to guess who? Mum!

 I wish I could remember how much money we actually raised that year….especially from the “Mrs Rees Ad Project”!”