From the President

MR TERRY IANNELLO OAM PRESIDENT ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

It was will great sadness that we bid a final farewell to our fellow committee member and CBC brother John ‘Polly’ Parker in November, 2020. Polly was a stalwart supporter of the Alumni Association and devoted many years of service to the Old Boys of CBC. His friendship, commitment and good humour have been sadly missed at our meetings. He would be so pleased to know that the College has named a sport award after him, and I know it will give all of us on the committee a bit of a thrill when it is presented at the annual Awards Evening.

It has been a tumultuous 12 months for everyone. However, we continue to gather as a community when we can and in November we held the highly-anticipated All Ages Reunion and Alumni Awards.

This year, with the uncertainty of social restrictions, we combined all of our decade reunions into the one event, and it does look like we will have to continue with that contingency for 2021 as well.

The event was, as always, a lot of fun and such a wonderful example of the broad cross-section of our graduates. As I say, it is not very often that a 20 year old spends quality time having a chat with an octogenarian except at a family event – and that’s exactly what the All Ages Reunion feels like. We celebrated the incredible achievements of alumni John Nolan (‘76) and Dr Jamie Beros (‘08), and this year the inaugural staff award was presented to Ms Trevanna Cooper. You can read more about the awards on pages 34 and 35.

The Year 13 Breakfast was also delayed just for a few weeks and it was a pleasure to welcome the Class of 2020 back to the College as Old Boys. Every year we acknowledge the student with the highest ATAR in his cohort, and this year I met with Ben Leavy (’20) and presented him with a small token of his hard work in attaining 99.4. Well done, Ben.

Every year your Alumni Association pays the College tuition fees for a student in need and this decision is at the discretion of the Principal. The young man who benefits from the James McGowan Bursary remains unknown to us but we do hear that he is making the most of the opportunities presented to him.

This year we are looking at another project for the alumni and that is the renovation of the exterior of the beautiful old hall that has been part of CBC even before the arrival of the Christian Brothers in 1901. In 2013 the College renovated the hall internally with some external work performed on the entrance portico, and Blessed Edmund Chapel is a stunning addition to the campus. We would like to continue the upgrade to the exterior of the whole building, and with this in mind have engaged engineers to commence an examination so we can ascertain what will be required for us to achieve this. With the College’s planned building upgrades that are outlined on pages 14 and 15, the Alumni Association committee believes the restored old hall will provide a wonderful reflection of the heritage and history of CBC Fremantle combined with the new facilities. It will be a lasting legacy from the Old Boys.

The Alumni Association committee is seeking your assistance to raise funds for the project. Financial donations to the building campaign are tax deductable and any amount, large or small, will all help. We are all in this together, and the restoration will be our gift to our community.

Traditionally, CBC alumni have been reluctant fundraisers. It’s just not in our culture to ask for money, but it has the powerful ability to bring together a community and to unite in a common goal. We hope you will join us with our dream and celebrate when we achieve. You can read more about how you can help on page 31.

If you have any enquiries or suggestions about the project, please don’t hesitate to contact me.