national president’s reportissue 11 past pupils’ newsletter january 2007 national delegate’s...

Issue 11 Past Pupils’ Newsletter January 2007

This, our eleventh issue of a National Newsletter, as usual, is a compilation of the Reports given by Local Associations and other officers on the National Council at our last meeting, which took place at the Salesian Rinaldi House, Battersea, London on 12 November 2006. Latest updates on our very successful Mission projects are also included.

Although Fr Sean was unable to be with us, we still opened our meeting with a prayer.

NATIONAL PRESIDENT’S REPORTNational President was delighted to report that the SMILE 2005/6 Mission appeal for a target of £12,000 to fund medicines for Malaria and HIV/AIDS was more than met. This was as a result of the generous contributions from Local Association members and Salesian Family. With the Gift Aid component this increased to £13,451. Some donations of £2,454 received after the close of the 2005/6 event would be carried forward to the current 2006/7 project.

Given the success of the 2005/6 Mission appeal it was decided to continue with the Malaria and HIV/Aids support for the 2006/7 Mission project. So far a further £3,811.29 has been donated. The end-date for this appeal is 31 March 2007. The meeting was reminded that cheques for the Appeal should be made out to ‘Salesians of Don Bosco’ to benefit from the Gift Aid additions and sent via Richard Blake, National Treasurer who will keep a record.

National President asks all Local Associations to ensure that all members receive posters/details of the current appeal and that all members be given an opportunity to contribute personally thereby identifying personally with the Mission, and that this not be just an Association making the contribution.

New Constitution: National Vice President reported that he had not yet produced a draft but was working on one for his Local Blaisdon Association which he would offer as a basis for National and other Local Associations.

National Football Competition: National President reported that the first meeting of teams for the National Football Competition had been very successful and enjoyable. It started with a packed Mass in the Club Bar with the Battersea Rector, Father Des O’Riordan SDB, presiding.

The eager Mass congregation in the Battersea Club House at Ewell in Surrey

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Teams from Battersea, Chertsey and Farnborough competed. Good and very competitive football was in evidence and excellent weather was no doubt provided by Don Bosco. Each Team played two games in a league type competition and the final between Battersea and Chertsey was won 2 – 0 by Battersea. Richard Blake, National Treasurer and Cowley President, and his wife Marion presented the Cup and Medals to the winning team.

National President’s wife, Diane, slaving in the kitchen to feed all the teams’ footballers

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Richard Blake, National Treasurer, presenting the Cup/medals with Patrick Morrissey

Richard Blake and Patrick Morrissey after presenting the medals and cup to the winners – Battersea Old Boys Football Club

It is planned to repeat the GB challenge tournament in April 2007. Then hopefully, a European competition for National Cup Winners, to coincide with the Eurobosco Congress in Pamplona, Spain in September 2007.

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The 2006 Cup Final in progress

The four excellent Referees - to keep order!

National President reported that Peter Hunter and Farther Sean Murray, National Delegate, would attend the meeting in Rome in December to discuss the Eurogex and Eurobosco meeting for 2007 and would raise the idea of the Football meeting, possibly coinciding with the Pamplona meetings.

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NATIONAL DELEGATE’S REPORT

Father Sean was unable to attend but sent his apologies and gave some information about the Blaisdon Association finances.

NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT

John Ward reported that, with the help of Father Pat Sherlock SDB, Provincial Secretary, he was maintaining the National website www.donbocsco.co.uk/pp. This carries, on the front page, the promotional flyer for the current 2006/7 Mission project.

VOCATIONS TEAM REPRESENTATIVE REPORT

Peter Hunter was unable to attend this National Council meeting.

Peter was elected to the World Confederal Council of Salesian Past Pupils. Peter is the first ever Great Britain Past Pupil to be elected to the World Council.

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Peter (left) with the Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chávez

BATTERSEA ASSOCIATION

President: Nicholas Potter Tel: 0208 679 0126

National Council Meeting - Sunday 12th November 2006

Welcome to the Mother House brother Salesians and to our Remembrance Day Family Mass in the Chapel followed by the dedication at the memorial for our Past Pupils who fell in the two World Wars.

Since the last meeting at Bollington in March there have been no events in our calendar. Our main thrust for the next six months will be to support the renewed SMILE appeal for 2006/7 in respect of Malaria/HIV and we mailed out our first letter in October which has already resulted in donations worth circa £500.

There will be a further mailing in January followed by a final clarion call at the AGM & Reunion on Feb 4th 2007. In addition if we can co-ordinate the publication of the next Newsletter for say Feb/Mar that will give us another opportunity to circulate the whole membership.

I am pleased to report that the College will be joining forces with us through the good offices of Kevin Regan, a long standing member of staff and a Past Pupil.

We have set ourselves the objective of exceeding last years magnificent effort which will be tough but not impossible and is why we have set the wheels in motion as early as possible.

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Our paid up membership continues to remain steady at around 200 whilst our new format Newsletter continues to attract new recruits. We maintain a sub-mailing list for a certain number of pupils who have left the school over the past five years or so, at no cost to them.

Nicholas Potter - Chairman

BLAISDON ASSOCIATION

President: Charles Springett Tel: 01782 767931

President’s Report to National Council – 12 November 2006

Apologies for not being able to attend the meeting owing to long traveling times needed to get to Battersea. I am pleased to report that the Blaisdon Website is running very well, thanks to John Ward who spends many hours keeping it up to date. We now find many more Past Pupils are able to keep in touch quicker and read the latest News and info through this site, and its links to the Salesian and Catholic Children’s Society websites.

Our usual get-together meeting in Blaisdon over the weekend after Easter went well, this is always an informal meeting with many Past Pupils, including some families turning up. Most of the local B&Bs are always booked up with most taking bookings for the weekend of the Reunion, usually in August, but for 2007 will be will be over the weekend 07/08July.

The Annual Reunion in 2006 over the August Bank Holiday was another great success. On Saturday evening there was a Bar-B-Q at the Village Hall with some members of the village joining us. On Sunday we had over 70 booked in for the buffet lunch, but unfortunately a few could not manage to make it.

It was a great spread laid on and served at table by those good friends of the Blaisdon Old Boys, the Ashcroft and Cookson families. Everyone enjoyed the day as always. It was always good to see so many Old Friends happy together. Don Bosco must be pleased to see this continuing after so many years. The day seems to go so quickly and never seems long enough.

At this years Reunion there was a big surprise for everyone with the publication and release of the Blaisdon Book “A Tribute to the Salesians of Great Britain”.

John Ward and Terry O’Neill had been working on this for a long time, with John, Terry and I on the phone most days and finding it difficult not to let anyone know. John was making all the contacts with the printers over printing problems, layout, etc. and was so pleased to receive the printed copies the day before our reunion. John presented the first copy to Father Sean Murray, who was very surprised, and the look on his face said it all. The book highlights the true work of the Salesians of Don Bosco and I recommend that all Salesian Past Pupils should buy and read it or at least read it. As the Blaisdon Website www.blaisdonbrotherhood.info is available so easily and there is so much information on it, we will not be sending our Newsletters out by post in future, unless requested to do so by or on behalf of an individual, or organisation.

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On Saturday 28th October 2006 a number of Blaisdon Past Pupils met up in the Tan House Farm, Blaisdon to form a committee to represent the “Blaisdon Past Pupils Association”, for the foreseeable future. At this meeting a Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Treasurer and President were all proposed and elected unanimously, with all other members present to be committee members.. A Constitution is to be drawn up and approved by the committee members as soon as possible. There will be an AGM in Blaisdon at the annual Reunion in July 2007.

Regretfully we have lost more Blaisdon Past Pupils this year. “May they Rest in Peace”.

Charles W Springett

BOOTLE ASSOCIATIONAwaiting a volunteer to take up the position vacated by Terry Rimmer.

BURWASH ASSOCIATIONVacantStill not yet established

CHERTSEY ASSOCIATIONNo report to National Council, but known to be one of the Associations that will take part in the next National Football event. Indeed it did and made it to the Final with Battersea.

COWLEY ASSOCIATION

President: Richard BlakeTel: 01753 863568Email: [email protected]

The Association held its 2006 AGM & Reunion on Sunday 15 October at The Four Pillars Hotel, Sandford-on-Thames, Oxford.

31 members attended with four SDB guests, Fr. Paddy McGrath, Fr. Joe Merriman, Fr. Peter Quinn and Fr. Joe Brown and our revered National Vice President, John Ward, accompanied by his delightful grand-daughter, Paige. 23 apologies were received including 3 SDBs, Fr. Hugh Preston, Fr. Sean Murray and Fr. James Walsh.

Proceedings commenced at 10am with a break for Mass at 1130 at Our Lady Help of Christians Parish Church, Cowley. Concelebrants were our four priest guests, with remembrance of the deaths of Old Boy Brain Jackson and John Clenshaw’s dear wife Peggy; May they Rest in Peace. Fr. Peter Quinn reminded all of our Salesian Heritage.

Rejuvenated by Fr. Peter’s strident sermon we returned to the hotel to continue the AGM, fortified by sherry. Despite the reduced membership and therefore income it was agreed to continue financial support of the Salesian individuals and connected organisations: Fr. Tom Donaghy in Russia, the Salesian Sisters, Don Bosco Publications, National Council, Nazareth House (in gratitude for the care it gives to SDBs approaching the end of their lives), Hospice Africa and SMILE.

Lunch, at the end of which the Salesian School Song was heartily rendered, brought the day to a

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close but not before the young Paige, (or ‘Miss CSOBA 2006’), at minimal urging from her grand-father, cajoled 13 (I believe) Old Boys to part with their money to purchase copies of the Blaisdon history, so boosting John’s super effort to swell the coffers of SMILE 2006/7.

Our 2007 gathering will be on Sunday 14th October, again at The Four Pillars Hotel. All on National Council are welcome.

Richard Blake Chairman CSOBA

FARNBOROUGH ASSOCIATION

President: John Clenshaw Tel: 01276 65690

Farnborough - Salesian Past Pupils AssociationReport to NATIONAL COUNCIL - November 2006

Contacts with Past Pupils - We are grateful to our Salesian Delegate,Fr Joe Brown for his continued good work in updating & enlarging our database of Farnborough's Past Pupils. Currently this record contains some 6,000names. However it does mean that we need to supply a regular update onchanges of address etc.

We endeavoured, with the help of our younger Committee member Greg Sudell,to set up a OSA Farnborough web site & we hope with this and via the Collegeweb site to maintain contact with past pupils with the help of the Headmaster'sAssistant, Mrs Carole Byrne.

Newsletter Reunion - We published our Newsletter in March (currently an annualpublication) & this was dispatched to about 350 members / recently subscribedmembers.

Reunion - We held our annual AGM & Reunion on Sunday the 30th April at theCollege with 30 attending Mass & the AGM followed by about 25 staying forlunch, a photo and then during the afternoon a visit to view the new Sportspavilion & to present a small black/white photograph of wartime destructionby bombing of an earlier timber constructed sports pavilion.

Rector Major's visit to Farnborough - On 22nd of April 2006 several past pupilswere able to be present at a hastily arranged 'Eucharistic Celebration' In theSchool hall when the Most Rev Fr. Pascual Chavez SDB, the Salesian RectorMajor, visited the College at Farnborough,

Contact with the School - Many of the last school year sixth form were presentat the Annual Prize-giving ceremony when prizes were distributed by MajorGeneral P.T.C. Pearson CBE., Commandant of RMA Sandhurst.I, as Farnborough President, was able to attend as representing our Association,together with several members of the OSA.

Sport - We were pleased that Farnborough were able to send a team to the OSANational Soccer Competition on Sunday the 28th of May 2006.

On the College Fete Day - 24th June 2006, thanks to our member Greg Sudell, the Annual Five-a-side Soccer tournament was held at the College playing fields when we had teams competing from those who left in the early eighties to current sixth form.

Web site - We should acknowledge our thanks to our OSA National Vice-President John Ward

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for recording & editing Farnborough's events & news of our old boys in the National Newsletter & on the National OSA web site.

OSA National Mission Appeal - SMILE 2006 /2007

I hope that at forthcoming Committee meetings we can arrange a suitable responseto the Appeal.

Footnote - Web site - I would like to acknowledge my thanks to our OSA National Vice-President John Ward for including the recent sad news of the death of my dear wife Peggyon the 4th October 2006, which occasioned such wonderful support from the SalesianCommunity and fellow OSA members.

John Clenshaw

SHRIGLEY ASSOCIATION

President: Joe Lomax Tel: 01204 843874 Email:[email protected]

SHRIGLEY ASSOCIATION

This year we have had FIVE gatherings of 'Shriglesians' and their families.

We started off with the two Masses for the feast of Don Bosco in Glasgow andthen Bolton, the Spring Weekend, the Annual Reunion based at Savio House andthe one in September based at Shrigley. We are trying to cater foreveryone, appealing to a broader base and attempting to show the inclusivityof our Association. We still value the friendship we share with those weknew at Shrigley but also that of those we contact in one way or anothereither by attending one of these gatherings or by email, letter, phone callor by just reading about them in the directory and reacting to that. Inthis context we are again having the Masses (Glasgow January 28th, BoltonFebruary 11th), the Spring Weekend March 9th-11th) and the Annual Reunion(July 20th-22nd).

We welcome suggestions from our membership as to a theme for theSpring Weekends and the Annual Reunions. We have one for this SpringReunion and this we hope will take the form of a talk by Pat Howard on theParish Church in Pott Shrigley, known to generations of Shriglesians as the'Four faced liar' followed by a tour of the Church by the vicar and possiblythe Church historian. For the July Reunion the main thrust will be thelaunch of the Peter Roebuck¹s book on our friends who are buried in thecemetery at Shrigley and it is hoped that relatives of these boys and menwill be present at the launch. This Reunion also will see the Saturdaybeing centred more at Shrigley with an optional Mass at Savio then a switchto Shrigley for the AGM business meeting, a buffet style lunch, the launchof the book and the visit to the cemetery in some order with a return toSavio for the evening meal and the concert. It is hoped that we will have agood attendance at this concert as it has been seen by all as a verypleasing climax to the weekend each year.

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Apart from this extra emphasis on Shrigley as was requested the committeeare trying to implement those things decided at the AGM. These included arevision of the Constitution, the composition of the committee, thenecessary raising of the subscription to £10 to cover all running costs andto boost the funds of the Association (last year we suffered a deficit of£600), this to be achieved as much as possible by standing order and thecosts of maintaining the Archives to be funded. In this context we welcomesuggestions from our members as to how the Archives ought to be used andwhere they should be kept.

In order to involve more of our Scottish members the nextcommittee meeting will take place at 3.00 p.m. after the Glasgow Don BoscoMass on January 28th which will be at 2.00 p.m. for those who wish toattend. A buffet and social gathering will follow the meeting. Quite anumber of us intend to go up from the south and it is hoped that there willbe wives and possibly families of members present as well.

Finally the ladies of Salve (Shrigley Association LadiesVoluntary Endeavours) are reorganising the repository at Savio as a businessto help Savio, which is subsidized to the extent of £100,000 each year byProvince. To set it up with a till, display units, etc, etc will cost inthe region of £500 which the ladies are finding from their own pockets. Ifanyone else would like to help their donations would be very gratefullyreceived.

Joe Lomax

THORNLEIGH ASSOCIATION

Vacant

THORNLEIGH PAST PUPILS

Once again, not a lot to report.

Sunday November 12th sees the joint Memorial Mass celebrated

with the Bolton Catenians at Thornleigh and celebrated by the Shrigley

Association President, Father Albert Carette. The small number of Past

Pupils present is swelled by the fact that quite a number of the Catenians

also went to Thornleigh.

February 11th sees the Don Bosco Mass again at Thornleigh at

which the Thornleigh Association will be joined by the Shrigley Association.

Three Past Pupils, sadly not members of the Association,

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benefited from the Catenian Bursary fund. They all went to 'The mission

fields' to help with teaching in areas of deprivation in Malawi and South

Africa. One received £1000 to help with travel and accommodation expenses,

another £800 and the third £500 for two months' work. Several others still

at Thornleigh received smaller amounts of £100 or £60 to help them in their

work with young pilgrims at Lourdes.

Joe Lomax

LIBERIA UPDATEAgain the past Pupils Mission project for 2005/6 has been successfully completed with the delivery of £13,541 to purchase medications to fight Malaria, the biggest killer of young children and babies, and for HIV/Aids. A few pictures of the recipients who are benefiting from your kind generosity:

The recipients awaiting their turn to receive the benefits of your generous contributions

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Queuing around the corridors, awaiting their turn

Waiting patiently

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Wait was too long for the little one!

Funds for the repeat of this work to be repeated on 2006/7 are growing well and we hope and expect to more than achieve our objective, as we have done in the previous years.

Mission Project for 2007/8We are now planning our SMILE Mission project for 2007/8. Father Joe Brown SDB, Missions Director, kindly attended our last National Council meeting, having been invited by National President to propose appropriate ideas for National Council to consider.

Father Joe suggested widening our target for future National Appeal objectives. He gave as an idea a Liberian Priest who is working in Ghana and needs funds to help poorer students attend a technical school. Father Joe also mentioned similar projects in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. These and possibly other ideas will be discussed at our Next National Council meeting in March 2007 and hopefully decided upon.

Father Joe assured the meeting that we could be sure that every penny achieved through the SMILE projects over the last few years has been spent entirely on the projects identified. He also acknowledged that feedback on progress is essential for all these projects funded by Past Pupil Appeals.

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CONFEDERAL MEMBER FOR NORTH EUROPE, MALTA AND AFRICA

Alex Dockers

Alex is currently helping to organise the 3rd African Encounter which will take place in Uganda in February, which he will attend. During this encounter they will be planning for the next “AFROBOSCO” to take place in Kinshasha, The Congo in 2009. We can expect to hear more of these from Alex in due course.

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APPEALWe are always looking to promote information of interest to Past Pupils. We just need you to send us articles for publication. Just Email text and photos to [email protected] for inclusion in the National Newsletter.

For information about future Events and News of past events for all Local GB Associations; see our Website: http//www.donbosco.co.uk/pp

Prepared by: John Ward, Vice President, Salesian Past Pupils Federation (GB) Tel: 01895 257623Email: [email protected]

Designed by: Fr Pat Sherlock SDB, Provincial Secretary, Salesian Provincial House

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national president’s reportissue 11 past pupils’ newsletter january 2007 national delegate’s...

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