Parents & Friends of Dio

PARENTS & FRIENDS

The start of the school year is one of the busiest times for Parents & Friends of Dio. This year was no exception and began by us welcoming a new president, Corrine Wallis. Corrine takes over from Rex Pearce who retired from the committee after eight years of wonderful service to the Dio community. Since joining P&F in 2015, Corrine has led a number of very successful projects, including the creation and rollout of the Diolicious recipe book in 2017. She will also be familiar to much of the Dio community through her role as home owner liaison for the Dio House Tour. Corrine and her husband Roger have one daughter at the School, Victoria who is Year 13 in Selwyn.

We kicked off by hosting the students and families at the Buddy Morning Tea and Picnic. We have been very fortunate with the weather over the last few years and this year was no exception. Over 500 new Dio families, students and Dio staff enjoyed our salad boxes, brownie, sausages and drinks on the School House lawn. We are grateful to Mr Zhenhua Yang of Fruit World Greenlane who, for several years, has donated the delicious and refreshing watermelons for our picnic – especially welcome during the hot dry Auckland summer.

Corrine Wallis

Buddy BBQ

New parents’ cocktails

Swiftly following on from this event we hosted the new parents for cocktails in the Chapel Courtyard. It’s hard to believe that the ‘new’ Chapel courtyard area has only been in service for three years. It is very much our ‘go-to’ venue for many kinds of casual events and provides the perfect venue on a summer’s evening for mixing and mingling.

These events done, all our efforts are now focused on our annual Father Daughter Breakfast on Monday 20 May, this year with guest speaker Ruud Kleinpaste, renowned entomologist and conservationist. This is a very special event in the P&F calendar and a muchanticipated event for many of the school dads. Not only is it a great opportunity to network with other fathers and listen to an interesting guest speaker, but also a great chance to spend time with their daughter(s).

The Father Daughter Breakfast is a longstanding event for P&F that has over the years welcomed a wide variety of speakers, from entertainers such as Mike McRoberts and Candy Lane, (who can forget her turn on the stage with some of the dads?) through to inspirational speakers such as Sir John Kirwan and Sir Ray Avery. We are sure many girls opted to switch to science subjects after hearing about the fascinating career of Michelle Dickinson, aka Nanogirl.

Remember, tickets are limited – so please get in quickly to secure yours. Tickets will go on sale early in Term 2 and parents will be notified via Dio Beat and The Messenger.

Looking to get involved more with the School? The logistics of the breakfast morning are quite something, with over 500 attendees. We usually begin the setup on the Sunday afternoon and our P&F committee arrive about 5.30am on Monday morning to start service. To help us set up for events like this and the aforementioned Buddy Picnic, we are always looking for volunteer helpers and new committee members. If you think you would like to be a part of Parents & Friends of Dio, please email us at pfa@diocesan.school.nz