Friends of Westminster - Edition 2 - 2021

Friends of Westminster - WestFest

Planning is underway for WestFest, now on Sunday 21 March, and our community groups are looking at being involved in a number of different ways. As with all of our events, we love to involve members of the School community. If you are able to give an hour or two of your time, we would be very grateful. There will be some volunteering leading into WestFest around setting up and pack down, carparking, QR Code registering, BBQ and other food, drinks and some select trading stalls. We want everyone to spend time with their family so will keep the rosters short and sweet. If you are available, please email the School’s Development Office through E: development@westminster.school to express your availability and preferred time between 4.00 and 8.00 pm (or just outside of these for set up and pack down). We’ll work out the schedule so that it is fair to all. In the absence of the much-loved Fun Fair, we are excited to again be out and about helping at the School. Some of the community groups that make up Friends of Westminster have included updates below so you know what is underway at Westminster.

As an aside, I have been approached by some families to find out what it is that Friends of Westminster supports? I’ll share more in upcoming article but as a heads-up, FoW is the umbrella group for the community groups. We provide a forum and voice to the School and it works the other way as well. We help manage the School’s Wish List process by assessing and fulfilling funding requests for items that generally fall outside the School’s annual budget. These may come from students, staff and families but not until approved by the School Leadership Team, led by the Principal. There is a process we follow with the School so for now please use my details below to initiate that process should you have any ideas to share.

Caroline Phegan
President, Friends of Westminster
M: 0412 144 277
E: caroline@webcraft.net.au

Parents’ Club

The Parents’ Club will also be helping out at WestFest (as we would for the Fun Fair too) but this year we are going to take on a couple of other events in the School’s calendar. The first of these is the Mother’s Day Lunch. Sadly, last year was a no-go but we have been invited to take this on for 2021. Plans are happening but what we can tell you is to ‘save the date’ for lunch on Friday 7 May at the Marion Hotel, where it was meant to held last year. As our luncheon details are locked in, we’ll be inviting all the wonderful ladies (and their mums) of Westminster to join us for a fun-filled celebration. Stay tuned!

Michelle Green
President, Parents’ Club
M: 0417 857 007
E: michelle@painmedsa.com

Boarder Parents’ Association (BPA)

The BPA has a focus around Boarding families but we’re hoping that Westminster families will support us in our Cow Pat Lotto, which was a huge online fundraising success for us last year. This year, we are planning to do it live at WestFest on Sunday 21 March although it will be a calf not a cow. Nonetheless, the prize money will still be pretty substantial. We’ll soon have our lotto set up for you to buy a square (at least one!) in the hope that our unnamed calf does its business mostly in it. I say ‘unnamed’ as we will soon be inviting students to offer some name suggestions. We’ll be releasing the ‘Calf Pat Lotto’ entry link soon – each draw will have 100 squares and you will be advised of your allocated number, according to the grid that applies to your draw. It’s great fun and I’m sure there’ll be a few special surprises thrown into the mix. Of course, if you are declared a winner, could it get any better than that?

Sarah Parker
President, Boarder Parents’ Association
M: 0410 421 413
E: bindarrah1@bigpond.com

Friends of Music

We’ll also be at WestFest and planning something somewhat different to the BPA! We’re also hoping to help out with refreshments during the interval of ‘School of Rock’, the School musical for 2021. Under the current health guidelines, we know what should be possible. If you have a child involved in Music (curricular or co-curricular) we invite you to join us. Last year, our fundraising opportunities were virtually non-existent. This year, we are looking for a much better outcome and making the most of what we can do to fundraise for Music-inspired projects and items.

Larissa Caudle
President, Friends of Music
C/- Donna Dunbar, Music Office
E : ddunbar@westminster.sa.edu.au
T: 08 8276 0236

Westminster Old Scholars’ Association

Being the largest of all the community groups with potentially over 10,000 members, we’re proud to be a part of the Friends of Westminster and work with other community groups. We’re an active association in support of Old Scholar engagement and wellbeing, and supporting the School through awards, a scholarship, mentoring, sponsorships and gifts. This year we are reinstating our reunion program and catching up on those not possible last year. We also work closely with our WOS affiliated sporting clubs, in particular, WOS Football Club (based at Glandore) and the WOS Soccer Club (men’s and women’s teams based at Westminster). We have other groups as well – Dance, Outdoor Education, occasional cricket and very keen to fire up Netball again.

Other Groups

Interest has been expressed in a Camping and Touring Club and an Aqua Sports Club (eg boating, waterskiing). We’ll be looking to set a date in March to meet and see whether we have any takers for these special interest groups. Let’s just say the emphasis will be on having a fine time, no matter the location!

Peter Trenorden (’77)
Community and Communications Manager
WOSA Executive Officer
WAVE/WARTS Rep
Any other groups!
E: ptrenorden@westminster.sa.edu.au
T: 08 8276 0234
M: 0417 810 533