Founders' Day

Founders' Day 2023

It was incredibly special welcoming all of our students and their families to Founders’ Day 2022, the one event in the year where the whole College gathers in commemorative celebration.  The day provided a wonderful opportunity for our gathered community of students, staff, parents, alumni and friends of St Stithians to affirm and celebrate our collective character and to honour our Founders and One and All who have created the legacy of St Stithians that we cherish today.

The chosen theme for the College this year and for our Founders' Day was ‘A Legacy of Happy Fulfilment’ and our Rector, Celeste Gilardi focused on this theme in her Rector's Address, as did our inspiring guest speakers who represented the various decades of St Stithians' 70 year history - Mr Paul Nash 1953, Prof John Napier 1953, Dr Donald Pupuma1982, Ms Manene Khoza 2004, Ethan Gondo Head Boy 2023 and Jozi Nupen Head Girl 2023.  We take pleassure in sharing the recordings of the highlghts of the speeches and the musical items below:

Official Openings

Naming of Acacia Place

Ahead of our Founders’ Day Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving each year a number of official openings take place across Campus. One such Official Opening was the Naming of Acacia Place. Acacia Place, the Girls’ College Wellbeing Centre, is a sanctuary for all our community, where wellbeing-related support, skills development, and workshops are conducted by our team of Psychologists, Psychometrist, Occupational Therapist, and School Chaplain. A paradigm of Positive Psychology is embraced, along with the ‘PERMA+V’ model of wellbeing. Positive emotions; Processing emotions; Engagement; Relationships; Meaning; Accomplishment; Vitality! Acacia Place was officially named by our Head of the Girls’ College, Dr Sally James, this is a small exerpt from her speech: Happy Fulfilment has been our core theme in our 70th year and hence it is most fitting that we officially name and open our very own special Acacia Place this morning. Acacia Place draws its name from the magnificent Acacia Trees in the front of the garden, more than that Acacia trees according to African tradition are of spiritual significance in that they symbolize regeneration, persevere and integrity, everything which this environment stands for. Carey-Ann Dellbridge the Director Psychology & Wellbeing at our Girls’ College officially unveiled the plaque and our Chaplains ended the formalities blessing the space. It was a special morning.  We invite you to watch the video here:

Chapel Windows Plaque Unveiling

Ahead of our Founders’ Day Service of Celebration and Thanksgiving each year a number of official openings take place across Campus. In our 70th birthday year, a new plaque was unveiled in honour of the magnificent stained glass windows created by artist Paul Blomkamp. The words on the plaque say it all, ‘In recognition of, and gratitude to Paul Blomkamp who designed, created , and installed the Chapel Windows over a period of eleven years. Completed in 1991, the windows depict the Fruit of the Spirit, illuminating the Chapel and all who enter it with God’s Light and Energy. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22 Unveiled by Bishop Faith Whitby and Ntombi Langa-Royds, Chair of the St Stithians College Council.

A special moment captured in our Chapel, the spiritual heart of our College.  View the video here:

Rededication of the Foundation Stone

The Founders’ Day theme for 2023 was ‘A Legacy of Happy Fulfilment’ and it was a day full of celebrating the gift of our College that our Founders bequeathed to us 70 years ago. To commemorate this momentous day, as part of the official openings ahead of Founders’ Day, there was a rededication of the Foundation Stone by our Chair of the St Stithians College Trust, Mr Gary Morolo. Our Foundation Stone states the following: This stone was laid on the eleventh day of August 1953 to mark the happy fulfilment of a trust to establish this College in the name of the Methodist Church and was laid by the Trustees, D.F Corlett, G.K Tucker, C.H Leake and J.B Webb It was wonderful to welcome many of our special Saints Community to be a part of this important moment - thank you #OneAndAll. We were privileged to have two Founder Saints students who were at the original laying of the Foundation Stone 70 years ago, join us for the rededication. Thank you to Paul Nash and Professor John Napier, and their wives Ann, and Erica for 70 years of service to Saints. Fulfilment comes when one’s focus is on something larger than oneself, fulfilment is more enduring and far reaching and this was certainly felt on our Founders’ Day. View the video below:

#PurposeInspired #PassionDriven #StrongerOneAndAll #FoundersDay

Thank you for being a part of our Founders' Day Celebration, One & All.

To view our web story on our Stronger One & All Banner and to search for specific names, please click here.

Read about previous Founders' Day celebrations below