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Scrip scam hits
Kailua school’s
fund-raiser

Scrip for St. John Vianney
Parish School's Country Fair
is recalled for reissue

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

False carnival scrip has cropped up again on Oahu, this time for a St. John Vianney Parish School fund-raiser in Kailua.

This event -- May 5-6 from 5 to 11 p.m. both days -- will be a joint country fair and craft fair. The craft portion is a first for the annual fair at the school, at 940 Keolu Drive.

"It seems that counterfeit SJV Country Fair Scrip is being printed and sold," said the Rev. Tom Gross, pastor at the Kailua parish. In a letter to school parents, he noted a similar counterfeiting occurred earlier this year with the Waimanalo Community Carnival.

The Waimanalo case remains under investigation. Counterfeit scrip had been sold for the early March carnival, with $10,000 worth of the phony scrip showing up at the event. Friends of Waimanalo, carnival sponsors and E.K. Fernandez Shows worked out an arrangement to share the loss equally.

The St. John Vianney Parent Teacher Student Association Country Fair Committee is taking steps to neutralize the counterfeiting:

All green Country Fair Scrip is being recalled. It is asked that this scrip be returned by tomorrow to the school office in an envelope with the name and grade of the family's youngest child at the school. New scrip will be reissued just before the Country Fair.
Green scrip will not be accepted at the Country Fair.
Purchasers of raffle tickets are advised that they should buy tickets only from persons they know are connected with the school.

"It is unfortunate that we have to cause this inconvenience to our school and parish families and all our faithful supporters," the Rev. Gross said. "We offer our apologies but hope that you do understand the seriousness of this situation," he told parents.

Another school, Iolani, which hosts its Family Fair 2000 tomorrow and Saturday, is not worried about fraud.

"The way we handle our scrip sales is really all internally," said Cathy Lee Chong, Iolani spokeswoman, noting that it is a tightly controlled procedure. "Our school mails out scrip coupons to all current families, and it's mailed from our office. So it comes in an Iolani School envelope with a letter with an Iolani School letterhead."

It also has a logo of the Family Fair theme this year, she said.

"They can purchase coupons and redeem them for scrip at the fair. So it's all done from our school office. It's not being sold by students or clubs or anything like that," she said.