The annual St Mary’s Old Girls Day was held on Saturday 6th September. After registration, we began the day with a Chapel Service led by Gill Padoa.  Before lunch we were treated to champagne and then a tour of the school.  Coupons for the tea garden had everyone enjoying some time at the Junior Primary Spring Fling Day, which was a fantastic success and the first of an annual event.  Lunch in the Dining Room saw us enjoying a lavish buffet in a pink and champagne setting of damask, tulle and Proteas!  It was a lovely morning enjoyed by all who came.  Special mention is made to those who attended from the year of 1968, celebrating their 40 year reunion, the ladies of 1978, celebrating their 30 year, the class of 1988, celebrating their 20 year reunion, the ladies from 1993 celebrating their 15 year reunion and the class of 1998 celebrating 10 years since leaving school.  

The Old Girls Guild has decided to standardise Old Girls Day to be on the first Saturday of every September, so you can put Saturday the 5th of September in your diary for 2009 Old Girls Day!  We look forward to seeing you again then.

London Mini-Reunion (by Kim ten Have nee Catlin 1988)
We were so sad to be missing out on the reunion in South Africa that 4 of us decided to get together in London to have a mini-celebration (or commiseration!) Sianne, Carla, Lynda, and I met on a glorious Saturday afternoon in October, with champagne and cakes, and had a wonderful time reminiscing, and catching up on the last 20 years, and talking about plans and hopes for the future.  Vanessa unfortunately couldn’t make it, but we planned to get together again before another 20 years passes!

Fundraising ‘Tea Party ’
The Guild of St Mary’s Old Girls hosted a fundraising ‘Tea Party’ on Saturday 19 April at 10:30am at St Mary’s school.  The focus was on inner and outer beauty and guest speakers comprised of Ivonne Troskie from KANEBO and Lucinda Stanley on “WARDROBE WISE”.  The 180 ladies enjoyed champagne and orange juice on arrival, each were given a goodie bag full of luxury sponsored items valued at over R200 and some of them were lucky enough to win super lucky draw prizes which included: salon vouchers, weekends away and many more.  Tickets were R200 per head and included a scrumptious tea with both savoury and sweet eats and was open to friends of St Mary’s.

The event was held in the School hall and was the morning after the Matric Dance which was titled ‘A night in Venice’.  The two events cleverly used the same venue to be able to enjoy the beautiful décor and surroundings and to make the most of all the hard work that was put into decorating the hall for the school’s matric dance by the Grade 11’s.  It was a memorable morning, where ladies were able to enjoy each others company and lots of fun was had by all. 

Left to right:Tenley Voogt (St Mary’s Old Girl and committee member), Pam Setzkorn (St Mary’s Old Girl and committee member), Lucinda Stanley (Guest speaker), Tyna Charter (Principal St Mary’s DSG), Ivonne Troskie (Kanebo guest speaker) and Lynn McKenzie (Chairwoman St Mary’s Old Girls’ Guild)

Other pictures are of the ladies sipping champagne on arrival and during the morning in the hall.