Mens Association & Care Group ____________________Page

2015 has sped past with a lot of activity at the College. The new building works brought some variety to the meeting places and procedures for the fathers, as we had relocated the maintenance office for the duration of the construction of The Paul Tobias Centre, which will include the new maintenance workshop that will double up as the new headquarters for the Men’s Association on weekends. Everybody has been interested in the development of the new buildings at both campuses and I have regularly received constructive comments from the dads that have cast a critical eye over proceedings

Attendance has been good this year averaging eight willing dads per working bee and we have had two Sundays this year with sixteen fathers attending, which allows me great scope to achieve many tasks around the grounds. I should clarify that some of men that attend these popular Sunday working bees are in fact GRANDDADS. I would like to acknowledge the following members who have been regular stalwarts of the

Men’s Association and have as the saying goes “put the runs on the board”, Paul Slattery, Danny Sheedy, Des Nolan, John Villanti,

Geoff Houghton, Rohan Crowe, Tony D’ Andrea, Noel Jaques and Carl Bentley, who continue to attend long after their sons have left the college. Working bees consist of two hours of hard toil to beautify and maintain the college, we then enjoy a BBQ cooked by Team Captains and refreshments. The Men’s Association members have changed since its inception in 1960 but we still perform very similar tasks that our predecessors commenced, painting, mowing, cleaning, setups and packups for functions and exams. I would like to thank all active members of the association and especially Team captain’s Des Nolan, Rohan Crowe, Danny Sheedy and David Cogan for all their hard work and guidance throughout the year.

Pierre Belluzzo - Property Manager CARE GROUP

Our Care Group was formed to assist families during times of crisis (eg. illness, bereavement or special circumstances). Each year this group has done wonderful work supporting those in our community when they are most in need. The last thing parents need to worry about is food, when they are under stress and strain caring for family members who are seriously ill or struggling to cope with extremely difficult circumstances. This year has been a very sad year for our College with a number of parents and staff illness and bereavements. We have been able to assist approximately 15 families throughout the year, with 50 - 60 meals supplied. The families we have helped are most appreciative of the support the College can offer through this group. A number of these families have received ongoing support to ensure there is a meal for their family as they cope with complex and long term illness. We sincerely thank our wonderful band of volunteer cooks / helpers who have generously prepared and provided many meals for others throughout 2015. Our VCAL students have also prepared meals and batches of snacks for our families which have been a tremendous boost to our supplies. We also thank our VCAL students and staff for their great work. Without all of these meals and all of your hard work, we would not be able to offer this support to our families, so to ALL involved in preparing meals THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH.

The new workshop

We take this opportunity to wish all our families good health, love and happiness for the Christmas and New Year season and look forward to your ongoing support again in 2016.

Zoe Callahan, Veronica van Galen, Adel Mawson & Maureen Bryant – SJC Care Group