2022 Maguire Celebration: College Captains' Address

(Zara)

Thank you all for joining us tonight for the 2022 Maguire Celebration. It’s taken a couple of tries to get here, but we are so grateful that tonight we are here gathering as a whole school community, together, for the first time this year. We hope to make 2022 a year of healing, connection, love and respect.

Over the past couple of years, we are no strangers to the challenges life can throw at us. Grace, Stella and I want to take this year as an opportunity to grow with all of you as we return into a ‘Covid Normal’ state. To make 2022 our year, we need to celebrate with one another, love one another and support one another.

(Stella)

So it is with great pleasure that we announce our 2022 Sacred Heart College theme, “Embrace, Encourage, Empower.”

For us, the 3 Es represent growth and strength as a community to be the best versions of ourselves. It is reflective of the Catherine McAuley quote, “Our charity is to be cordial. Now cordial signifies something that renews, invigorates and warms. Such should be the effect of our love for each other”. And the Scripture passage Proverbs 3:18: "They are a tree of life to those who embrace them, and those who hold on to them are happy.” This year, we invite you to ‘do the 3 E’s’.

(Grace)

We challenge you to embrace change and the hurdles life has in store for you. We encourage you to reach out if you need a little extra love and support and to believe in yourself. We want to empower you to make a difference and stand up for what you believe in. This is your year to start writing the next chapter of growth, strength and love.

Be the friend with the big heart; who appreciates everyone for who they are... the one who gives without expecting anything in return... and the one who is understanding, and who listens to others.

Hold out your arms, embrace each other.

Cheer on your peers, encourage each other.

Lend a hand, empower each other.

We are so excited for 2022 and we look forward to seeing how each and every one of you embraces, encourages and empowers. Thank you.

2022 Maguire Celebration – Principal’s Address

Good evening and how wonderful it is to be able to come together to celebrate as a College Community (even if we’re not a GMHBA stadium).

As much as COVID -19 has taught us many new lessons it robbed us of what is at the heart of humanity – the ability to gather, to spend time together and to build relationships. We have reclaimed this tonight, and I extend an invitation to you, alumni and your extended family to again come together as the Sacred Heart College community, in a belated celebration of our 160^th Anniversary where the focus will be on faith, family, food, and fun on Sunday 15 May, commencing with Mass at 10.30am on this oval followed by carnival wild rides, food vans, a market, music and more. Information will be provided, over the next few weeks, via my Principal’s Update to Families this Friday.

Congratulations to our College Captains Stella, Zara and Grace. The 3 ‘Es’ Embrace, Encourage, Empower capture what is needed now in what I hope is a post COVID time. Well done!

I also extend my congratulations

• To our 2022 student leaders and staff presenters
• To all our award and scholarship recipients and to the students who shared their talents through the performances we enjoyed tonight.

Please join with me as I thank the Maguire Celebration Planning Team: Directors: Margaret Wills and Stacey Carmichael, Laura Dillon, Catherine Middlemiss, Julie Tucker, Alan Riggs, Megan Den Dryver, Elizabeth Coutts, and Nam Huynh.

I appreciate that you are keen to get home to watch yet another celebration – that of the life of sporting hero and larrikin Shane Warne - so I will keep my remarks brief.

At home, on my coffee table sits a book titled - ‘Because She Can’. It captures responses from 30 diverse and amazing women who have contributed to Melbourne and the world to one question, - ‘If you could do anything, what would it be? The stories of these women take you on an emotional journey ranging from delight to heartbreak, yet always inspiring. Each woman is connected by a common thread, believing in a cause with a deep-rooted passion that leads them to create positive change. Each of the women turn uncertainty into courage.

I have no doubt that had these interviews taken place in Catherine McAuley, the foundress of the Sisters of Mercy and Mother Xavier Maguire’s time their stories would have been included because both women took their passion to empower women and with courage, agility and adaptability they created what we have today.

Girls, you are the next generation of this Mercy Story and in years to come I want to have your stories sitting in a book on my coffee table in my home.

In line with our 2022 College theme, the 3 Es - Embrace, Encourage, Empower, I ask you - ‘If you could do anything, what would it be?’

Now, take a quick look around you. – Whatever your goal, this is the community that will support you in your quest to turn uncertainty into courage and become because that becoming begins here and now within the safety of home and school. Thank you.

Please see below a selection of images from the evening. To view more images, students can do so by clicking on Imagebank (under 'Media') on the Student Portal.