Patricio Zammit Foundation aims to create a future college

OF THE many local association and charitable entities in Torrevieja, one of the quietest and understated, yet one of the longest in existence is possibly the September is possibly the Patricio Zammit Foundation.

With many families feeling the financial strain on the purse strings as their children return to school the Foundation is a local organisation who offer special grants for school children and aim to create a future college in Torrevieja. Last Tuesday (6th September) they presented 54 scholarships worth € 8,500 for children from families with financial needs to help fund their studies, especially for 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. The Patricio Zammit Foundation uses 70% of the income-produced from real estate, stocks and shares to provide the scholarships.

In Torrevieja, Patricio Zammit has a main 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 successful businessman and enjoyed living in Torrevieja.

He remained a bachelor all his life and it’s reported that he enjoyed a very prosperous life living in, what back in the 1950’s, was a very small town. He planned to marry Maria Aguilar from Santander, Granada but sadly died just hours before his wedding, celebrating it in “articulo mortis.” The Foundation lost contact with Maria Aguilar in 1986, but have recently employed 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.

However, the primary goal of the Patricio Zammit Foundation remains the establishment of a school of their own and if they can establish that Maria Aguilar has passed on, and the necessary permissions are granted by local and regional education boards, then their dream of having their own educational facility could soon become a reality.

By Keith Nicol

Author badge placeholder
Written by

Euro Weekly News Media

Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews

Comments