ALUMNAE AND YEAR 6 COMPANIONSHIP CAMPAIGN

Amelia Tan | Events and Alumnae Relations Coordinator

Experiencing the first pandemic since the Spanish flu (over a hundred years ago), 2020 has been challenging for many of us. Lockdown imposed a new lifestyle which included Genazzano students learning at a distance and people who are most vulnerable encouraged not to leave their homes.

To help combat this period of isolation, an Alumnae and Year 6 Companionship campaign was created to share our love and support to members of the Gen community. Year 6 students were asked to write a letter to an Alumna sharing their learning at a distance experience and enquiring about their time at Gen. Letters were sent to over 360 Alumnae and responses came streaming back with around 50% replying with a letter to the Year 6 student who wrote to them. You could feel the warmth and appreciation from our Alumnae jumping off the pages and it was a wonderful activity to be part of.

Congratulations to all the students and alumnae who took part in this initiative, we hope the examples we’ve shared encourage you to send a handwritten letter to a loved one of your own! I would like to thank the person who had the brilliant idea of setting the students the task of writing letters to us. Emily was in Year 6 and a delight. Yours sincerely, Joan.

Congratulations on such kindness and community benefit . Best wishes to you all at Genazzano.

I enjoyed writing a letter to the Genazzano Alumnae and loved reading the answers to my questions in reply. I found it interesting how fancy the handwriting was. - Olivia, Year 6

Gen girls, I think, wrote letters to Alumnae to make them feel happy and warm, knowing that someone is thinking about them during this tough time. This is more clear to me now, after I received a letter, written back to me and it gave me an amazing feeling of happiness. - Madeline, Year 6

What a lovely surprise! Every day I go to the letterbox hoping that I will receive a lovely letter or card, but it rarely happens - usually there are bills or other correspondence that is not very exciting, but today your lovely letter was waiting for me.

Elodie Beaudry, Year 6A

Patricia Cody (Kennedy, 1951)

Helen Courtney (Kennedy, 1955)

My name Madeline and I’m in Year 6 at Genazzano. I have two older brothers, an older sister and a dog. I started at Genazzano at the start of Year 5 and I’m really enjoying it there. Did you enjoy Genazzano when you went there?

Mary Williams (Anderson, 1960)

I’ve been doing school from home for the past month and it has been very enjoyable and much easier than I thought. Activities I’ve been enjoying whilst at home have been drawing, reading and baking.

The thing I’m missing the most during Lock Down is probably my friends. I’m so used to seeing them every day. I do still see them every day, but on Facetime and Zoom. How have you been during lockdown? I hope it hasn’t been too hard and you're still finding ways to stay connected with your friends and family.

Madeline Newman, Year 6B

I hope you stay safe, healthy and happy during quarantine.

Madeline

Natalie Vong, Year 6B