TOBA President’s Report

T BA President’s Report

This report finalises my TOBA duties for 2021. It has been a busy year, and far more successful year than 2020, which had all the disruptions of the pandemic. This year, all scheduled events proceeded with one very notable exception – the Anzac Day Remembrance, which is an important event in the TOBA calendar when we recognise and pay tribute to our Old Boy veterans.

In 2022, our first event for the year– the Golden Heritage Club/Year 12 Mass and Morning Tea will take place on Tuesday 1 February, but later in April I am very much looking forward to finally honouring our Old Boy veterans again at Anzac Day ceremonies. There were some great highlights and record attendances at events in the last half of 2021. There was some fantastic competition and lots of fun between the Old Boys and the students at the Winter and Summer Sports Day. TOBA was triumphant (thank goodness) with wins across all five winter sports, with Troy Zafer (‘91) winning the TC Spirit Award as MVP. In the Summer Sports Day, the students proved that cricket is a young man’s sport, while the Old Boys triumphed overall, with Dave Mackiewicz (‘86) winning the TC Spirit Award for being the oldest alumni competing on the day. Thank you to everyone who arranged teams, umpired, cooked a snagger or came along to have a laugh. The TOBA Sportsmen’s Lunch was held in June, as usual, on the site of the old CBC Terrace, now the Duxton Hotel. This event has become an institution, with Mark Readings (‘87) as MC and auctioneer running a very professional and well-organised day. Our guest speaker, Mick Collis, received glowing reviews and as usual, Richie Mackiewicz (‘87), stole the show with his fund-raising efforts at auction time. We welcomed 176 new Old Boys into the TOBA family at the 2021 Graduation Breakfast. This year, Jack Cleary (‘12) was our guest speaker. Jack is an Olympic medallist, winning bronze in Tokyo for the men’s quad in rowing. He is now training at the AIS in Canberra for Paris 2024 and took time out of his schedule to speak to our graduating class, where he was most warmly received. At the second annual Trinity Regatta held in November in front of our own shed, TOBA was proud to christen The TOBA Spirit. We look forward to watching the progress of this eight and her many crews – let’s hope it can propel the boys to more great successes on the water. We always close out the social calendar with the annual sundowner where we thank all those involved with or are supportive of TOBA. The event was well attended, and my personal highlight is seeing the diversity in age among the Old Boys that have served on the committee or supported the alumni spirit over the year. In the background, TOBA continues to support the College as much as we can. The association contributed to the new electronic scoreboard at the College’s playing fields at Manning; to the Friends of Performing Arts for their new piano for the PA Department; and we continue our support of rowing by paying for the lease of the shed at Champion Lakes. We also launched a scholarship fundraiser via Patrick Coward (‘81) and Coward & Black Vineyards in Margaret River and we sincerely thank Pat for his support. Through the efforts of Jude Celedin (‘91) we were able to launch new merchandise: a TOBA polo and puffer jacket. Thank you, Jude! At this time, I publicly thank the TOBA committee for their work throughout the year. The 17 committee members selflessly dedicate hours of their time to the wide variety of events we host. They cook hundreds of sausages, dress up as Father Christmas and attend assemblies among many other thankless tasks. I particularly thank Peter Torre (‘89), immediate past president of TOBA who continues to run a number of signature Junior School assemblies in a way only he could – with the passion and energy of a much younger man. Warm thanks to College Principal, Mr Darren O’Neill, and the Leadership team for their ongoing and continued support of TOBA in always granting access to the College facilities and having great patience with our passionate alumni. My final thanks for the year go to Ms Aleisha Dows and Ms Di Millar – the backbone of TOBA. Since October, Di has taken a well-deserved extended break after celebrating her 13th year with TOBA. In her absence we have been fortunate to have Aleisha back at TOBA closely following Di’s extensive handover notes and making sure things continue to run smoothly. On behalf of the Old Boys I thank them both for constant and continued hard work – and their belief in TOBA and the TC Spirit. We are looking forward to running another full calendar of events in 2022, plus the usual milestone reunions and one very special anniversary – 60 years since Br JA Kelly made the move from The Terrace to the East Perth location which was the beginning of Trinity College. We are looking forward to making an announcement on commemorating this important milestone in the College history. And of course, we will continue our involvement with current young men of Trinity so that we, as Old Boys, can Keep the Spirit Alive. I wish you and your loved ones a relaxing time over the summer holidays. Keep safe and we look forward to seeing you all in 2022.

Dion Smith (‘87)

President Trinity-Terrace Old Boys’ Association