Director of Development and St Hilda’s Old Girls’ Association

I would like to welcome our newest Old Girls to the St Hilda’s Old Girls’ Association - the Class of 2021. What a wonderful bunch of young women you are - and an impressive cohort which has had to face many challenges over the past two years. Thank you for all your help with the 125th Anniversary - our visitors loved meeting you all, and I hope you take some good memories of this celebration away with you. Go well, and stay in touch with us.

It has been another year of contrasts caused by Covid-19 - we had our wonderful 125th Anniversary celebrations in March, with 600 visitors to St Hilda’s over the reunion weekend, followed by a number of events which have had to be modified, postponed or cancelled. We feel very lucky that the 125th was scheduled for that ‘window’ of time when we were in Level 1, as many other schools have not been so fortunate with their significant celebrations.

We celebrated our inaugural Distinguished Alumni Award recipients at our St Hilda’s Day service in October, another example of an event which had to be modified, as we weren’t able to have the recipients join us to accept their awards. We honoured Dr Norman Fitzgerald (contributions to medicine and business), Honor McKellar QSM (contributions to music and teaching) and Louise Petherbridge QSO (contributions to the performing arts), for their outstanding achievements in their respective fields. We hope to invite the award recipients to St Hilda’s next year to celebrate their achievements.

Looking ahead to 2022, which we hope will be smoother sailing for event planning, we have a fundraising House and Garden Tour planned for February 20th, which has been kindly sponsored by Anita Greene of Bayleys Metro. There are 8 homes and gardens to visit on the tour, then a social function (sponsored by Moyles Fresh Choice Green Island) and silent auction will follow at St Hilda’s. We have some wonderful prizes for the silent auction including artwork by Frank Gordon, and other items donated by Mitre 10 Mega, Nichol’s Garden Centre, Blueskin Nurseries, Fresh Choice Roslyn, Gallery De Novo and more. Email aburke@shcs.school.nz to reserve tickets.

Our 125th Anniversary Appeal was postponed, and will now take place in March. This is our final big fundraiser for the Building Heart Campaign and will be held online, with a launch event taking place on March 23rd at St Hilda’s. St Hilda’s Old Girl, former National MP and current CEO of the Food and Grocery Council, Katherine Rich, will be our guest speaker at the launch. We hope you can join us for this special appeal, and we look forward to sharing more details about it in the new year.

Wishing you all a very happy festive season and relaxing break.