60th Anniversary Dinner

Loretta Wholley, current Principal, cutting the celebratory cake with former Principals Julie Dempster, Anne Cummins, Catherine Rey, Ann Cleary and Frances Menz

We would like to thank everyone who attended our 60th Dinner at the Canberra Rex on Saturday 7 September.

Please follow the link http://merici.college/go/-60-dinner-speeches to find the formal speech presented by Mrs Loretta Wholley, Principal. Loretta also presented a speech on behalf of Ross Fox, Director of Catholic Education Canberra.

Our sincere thanks and appreciation to the 60th Organising Committee members:

Helen Beasley, Helen Campbell, Christine Collins, Amy Connellan,

Adrian Heim, Kaye Hogan, Wanda Lawler, Virginia McLeod, Ros Parisi,

Sr Genny Ryan, Eva Schroeder, John Volpato, Loretta Wholley

Corresponding Members: Bernadette Alexander, Rosemary Sheehan

The Committee held its first meeting in March 2018. At that meeting they identified two main objectives that they hoped to achieve. First, that the 60th celebrations recognize our founding orders and embrace how our Sisters have shaped our past, present and future.  Second, that all members of community have an opportunity to attend at least one event in celebration of our 60th. With this in mind, events were held throughout the year, with the Opening School Assembly  and Opening School Mass both held in February, where the 60th Prayer was released and the beautiful wooden statue of St Angela Merici was unveiled. The Committee also launched the photography competition with the theme “What does Merici mean to you? for Alumni, current students and staff.

In June the College held an afternoon Festival, with great food, music, dance and vocal performances, school tours and the photography competition winners were announced.

The #MERICI60 Concert held over two nights in August took the community on a walk down memory lane as each decade was revisited through performances, alumni reflections and current students highlighting life at Merici.

And on Saturday 7 December, the community celebrated a very special Mass in the morning and blessed their newly planted rose garden dedicated to our Orders, religious and lay teachers, students and support staff over 60th years.They also blessed a plaque acknowledging the boys at the College, and our 60th mural which depicts who we are, where we have come from and our vision for the future.

Our formal celebrations concluded with a very special dinner where the guests were able to reconnect with old friends and celebrate the memories they hold and make some new ones!

Our sincere thanks to our committee for their dedication and commitment to truly making this year a memorable one.  We are proud to say that we believe we have achieved our two objectives, with over 1000 people collectively attending all our events.

Special thanks to Wanda who held a fundraising afternoon tea with students from 1959-1962 to raise money to cover the cost of the rose garden, John for organising the plaque commemorating all the boys, Eva for organising the photo competition and Christine for her help in organising this dinner.

We have picked up a few helpers along the way, thanks to all alumni, staff and students who were involved in the concert, Fiona Buining and Trent Cannell for their work in the garden, our Hospitality staff and students for all their catering, and Susan Anderson for all help with setup. Also a big thank you to our MCs Malia and Olivia for their wonderful work and continued support.

Thanks everyone, #MERICIPRIDE.

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