Successful Foundation Benefit Dinner to become an annual event

July 02 , 2011

The inaugural annual Foundation Benefit Dinner & Auction was held early July and brought together more than 170 parents, Old Boy’s, staff and friends of the College. Despite the chilly evening this event was highly successful and the feedback has been most positive, ensuring it will become an annual event on the College calendar.

One of the main objectives of the Foundation is to reconnect people back to the College and it was fantastic to see such a cross section of our wider College     community supporting the Foundation and its initiatives.

Foundation Chair Mark McGuinness spoke of the programme the Foundation is working towards, both in the Education and property sectors of the College and the need for this community to consider stepping up and becoming an active part of this ambitious undertaking. Construction of the $2.5 m Theatre/Quad redevelopment is planned to commence next year which will have an enormous positive impact on all of our students and provide another income stream for the College.

Former All Black Brent (Buck) Anderson from the New Zealand Rugby Football Union  enlightened the audience with his  8 point plan  on goal setting and achievement interspersed with some rugby anecdotes .

Keynote speaker John Allen, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, delivered a stimulating speech outlining the critical role the Foundation could play in connecting the St Pat’s community, why it was important, and how its work programme could benefit generations of  young people.

The Foundation was fortunate to attract such high calibre speakers in both Buck Anderson and John Allen and we thank them for their community spirit by taking part in this function.

Both Con Anima and Year 13 orator Alex McKenna showcased some of the College’s talent to the crowd and then auctioneer extraordinaire Mick Robbers guided the audience to partake in robust bidding for some exciting packages. The evening raised over $22,000 which will go to the Foundation’s initiatives.  Thanks to all the sponsors, organisations who donated goods, our MC Old Boy Daniel McHardy and of course those that came and joined in the celebrations.

The 2011 Foundation Benefit Dinner sponsors were:

Architectus, Athfield Architects, Circuit Systems, Dunning Thornton Consultants, ECL Group, Fratelli, Greenwood Roche Chisnall, Harcourts, L T McGuinness, Willis Bond & Co