Collegians in Lockdown

Many Collegians worked on the front line throughout the worst moments of the COVID pandemic crisis in 2020. We sincerely thank all those Collegians, including:

Whitney Elliott (TC’16) – COVID Ward Nurse, working at Frankston Hospital.

Collegians Hannah Seymour (TC'14) and Eva Seymour (TC'11) joined their father Mark Seymour to bring you ‘Music from the Home Front’, airing on Channel 9 last year. This concert aimed to give thanks to those working on the COVID frontline.

Collegians and sisters Laura Panton (TC'09) and Sally Panton (TC'07) made headlines for their involvement in the future of COVID testing. Laura and Sally are Directors of Pantonic Health, a medical supplies and services organisation, who are among a small handful of Australian distributors of rapid coronavirus antigen tests. “They are low-cost, easy to use, point-of-care devices that produce results in 10 minutes.” Laura Panton told The Australian.

Jessie Rafeld (TC'08) - Locum Doctor, working in the emergency departments at Ballarat Hospital, Echuca Hospital and La Trobe Regional Hospital.

Sarah Lorentzen (Nosworthy, TC'96) - Director of Continuous Improvement at Monash Health, Victoria's largest public health service. Simone Alexander (TC'89) - Chief Operating Officer at Alfred Health, responsible for the management and performance of Alfred Health’s clinical operations.

Nicola Gorwell (Morgan, TC'81) - Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner working in the St Vincent’s lead Residential Inreach Aged Care Crisis team, responding to the outbreak of COVID infections in residential aged care facilities in metropolitan Melbourne.

A number of very talented Collegian musicians joined together throughout the 2020 lockdown to create a beautiful ensemble rendition of the popular song 'All of Me'. Under the direction of the Toorak College music department, over ten Collegians met regularly online to rehearse. The end result was stunning and brought much joy to Collegians at the end of a diffi cult year. Musicians included: Charlotte Baker (TC'19), Dominique Mirabella (TC'16), Ruby Stocker (TC'15), Katie Sloan (TC'12), Ismini Karamesinis (TC'11), Polly Matheson (Anderton, TC'01), Jenny Paterson (Hutchinson, TC'01),

Thank you to our Young Alumni Advisory Group Mae Cumming (TC'18), Charlotte Henderson (TC'18), Annie Zampatti (TC'18), Sophia Milne (TC'17) and Lucy Wilby (TC'11) who were instrumental in designing and delivering our six week 'Keeping Collegians Connected' campaign through the 2020 winter. This campaign comprised of 18 social and informative online events, many hosted by Collegians, and was aimed at keeping young alumni connected during lockdown. Over 480 Collegians registered for these events ranging from online reunions, yoga and fi tness sessions, careers advice, plus many more. The feedback suggested the campaign was key to keeping the youngest members of our community engaged with each other through a time where isolation was reported to be at the centre of many mental health struggles among the community.

STAY CONNECTED!

The Toorak Collegians will be continuing with exciting initiatives in 2021 which focus on community, careers, archives and communications. It’s imperative we have your correct contact details so you can stay connected and get involved. Please email collegians@toorakc.vic.edu.au or call (03) 9788 7208 if you wish to update your contact details.

You can also stay up to date via our social media pages: toorakcollege.vic.edu.au/collegians

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