Catch me if you can: girls in a friendly chase. Right: The members of the PTA committee which organised the event. PICTURES: Jayaram

By Bonnie James
Deputy News Editor
The American School of Doha Friendship Festival 2012, which attracted thousands of visitors yesterday, marked the culmination of a two-year campaign to build a music and drama facility worth nearly QR800,000.
Presented by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the event was organised by festival chair Anita Reilly and a committee of 15 parents with the support of staff, parents and student volunteers.
“Construction of the new two-storey state-of-the-art music and drama building for High School and Middle School is set to begin immediately and should be ready before the summer break in mid-June,” PTA president Jan Goulden told Gulf Times. ASD director Dr Deborach Welch said the Friendship Festival symbolises what the school is all about. “As illustrated by the event’s title, ASD is reaching out to the entire community and bringing them together,” she said while praising the outstanding role played by the PTA.
“I have been in many international schools, but have never experienced a PTA as professional, giving, committed and dedicated as that of ASD,” added Dr Welch who joined the school in July 2010. A tradition for over 14 years, the Friendship Festival is a major fundraiser for the PTA of ASD which currently has close to 2,000 students of more than 40 nationalities.
Proceeds from the event and other PTA initiatives have helped to fund special projects in the past, including a QR1mn Lower Elementary playground, theatre seats in the auditorium, resurfacing of the elementary sports’ courts, the lighting in the theatre lobby of the high school, landscaping throughout the school, the Elementary chalkboard wall, and ‘smartboards’ for classrooms.
Live entertainment, games and prizes, a variety of food vendors, and shopping for merchandise from local businesses were among the highlights of the event yesterday.
The major sponsors were Maersk Oil Qatar, Conoco Phillips, ExxonMobil Qatar, Occidental Petroleum, Schlumberger, Reshi’s, Chevron Phillips Chemical, RasGas, Sylvan Learning Centres, Weill Cornell Medical College, Noble International, Stenden University Qatar, Dr Sarah’s Dental Specialists and Family Dental.