Conferences, Exchanges and Fundraisers – Round Square gets busy in Semester One The Round Square group has already been rather busy this year, beginning with a Free Dress and Fundraising Day to collect donations for the flood-affected people of Theodore that raised a magnificent $7000 from the TSS community. Following up on this success in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake, we arranged another fundraising Free Dress Day for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand. The added attraction was a raffle with a signed All Blacks jersey kindly donated by Mr Ian Kirkpatrick and the TSS Old Boys as the prize. The result is $2000
going to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. On Thursday, 16 June we held our annual Leukaemia Foundation Shave for a Cure day. The boys thoroughly enjoyed the event, with many going home sporting brilliantly coloured hair and more than a few with haircuts that may well have stunned their parents. Our sincere thanks are extended to mothers Rebecca Paranthoiene, Michelle Paraka, Louise Millroy, Nicci Wilson, Helen Vasiliades and Kim King, who gave of their time and hair-colouring expertise. And special thanks to our lovely hairdressers, Jacqui and Michelle, who donated their valuable time to decimate the locks of 20 boys. During the Easter break Ms Julie Watts from TSS Prep took a group of our boys to The Round Square Junior Australasian Regional Conference. Braedan Van der Vegt, Trent Sinclair, Caleb Pels, Charlie Martin, Justin Hunt and Darcy Leahy all thoroughly enjoyed the pre-conference tour to Uluru and King’s Canyon. Ms Watts was very impressed with the way the boys participated in the conference and the ideas that they have brought back will be of considerable value to Round Square at TSS in the years to come. During the first week of Term Three, Conan Bland will be accompanied by Vincent Di Bella and his exchange guest Herries Anderton from Scotland, Jack Martin, Jackson Wichlinski and Kristian Buckland to the Round Square Senior Australasian Conference to be hosted by Westminster School in Adelaide. We are now entering the busiest period of the year for international Round Square exchanges. In January this year, Ben Provest attended L’Ermitage in Paris and enjoyed a wonderful experience. While Ben’s report will be included in the 2011 Southportonian, I want to point out right now that he was such a fine ambassador that his host family asked him to stay on for an extra week so that he could be involved in an extremely significant family celebration. Next term we will be hosting Herries Anderton from Glenalmond College in Scotland. His host will be Vincent Di Bella and Vincent will be returning to Scotland with Herries in September. From Scotland’s Merchiston Castle School we will be welcoming Alex Webb and Michael Finlayson, and from Berkeley Prep in Florida we will host Cameron Kenny and Wes Dickerson, while later next term James Stuchfield will travel to TSS from Felsted School in Oxford. 2011 has started with a bang and looking at what lays ahead for Round Square it looks set to keep on firing for the rest of the year. Christopher George – Round Square 51