Crescent Academy International Fundraising Event: New Leadership

By Masood Rab, MMNS

Gone are the old, I may add wrinkled, faces of yesteryears that were the center of fund raising events at the Crescent Academy International.

One of the pioneering Islamic schools in Canton, Michigan, albeit America, Crescent Academy International moved its operations to a newly constructed building next door to the old facility for 2007-2008 academic year. The new school building consists of almost 60,000 sq ft. space over three floors. The school offers instructions from Pre-K through 8th grade and started a new day care program from this year. The school operations are divided in three sections, i.e., daycare, elementary and middle school.

The first fundraising event for 2008 was conducted in a packed gymnasium decorated with winter theme. Sr. Sommieh Flowers greeted the parents, grand parents and ex-students of the school and conducted evening’s program consisting of anasheeds (religious songs) and skits from the school children. The choreography and the sound management were supervised by the internationally renowned anasheed artist, Br. Abu Ratib. He teaches and also coordinates Quran/Arabic program at the school.

The first fund raising event of year 2008 was conducted on Saturday February 23, 2008 by the new breed of school parents – the new young members of the Board of Directors of the school. The Board of Directors is an interesting mix of second generation Muslims, professional immigrants from various Muslim lands, led by a young indigenous revert to Islam. Brandon Metzger and Iltefat Hamzavi, president and treasurer of the Board, respectively, gave a power point presentation about Crescent Academy’s achievements in this academic year. Were they amazing! Minimum 94% to a maximum of 100% placement in MEAP results, wow! Tarbiah project – integrating Islamic values into the core curriculum, and so on. Then, an appeal was made to the parents, grandparents and the attendees of the event to sign up for a regular automatic monthly deduction for paying back the loans the school incurred towards new building construction costs.

When the evening program ended with resounding takbeerat, it was very evident that the transfer of the leadership of this Islamic school to the next generation is well on its way. This is a credit to the vision of old guard under the leadership of Abdul Hafeez, Mahmood Hai and relentless efforts of the school’s director Dawud Tauhidi, the mind behind the Tarbiah project.

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