Founders’ Week - Celebrating 120 years
Mrs Janet Stewart | stewartj@mbc.qld.edu.au
This week at Moreton Bay College, our community has come together to celebrate the vision of our Founders – the Greene sisters – and 120 years of college history as we acknowledge the ‘seed’ of the Visual and Performing Arts in the life of the school. The girls have embraced this milestone with great enthusiasm as you can see below:
Happy Birthday MBC
On Monday, at the Evening of Art, we recognised the significant role of Visual Art at the College by presenting a curated exhibition of the work of Anne Greene and revealing three new pieces of her work the College has recently acquired. We are grateful for the wonderful support of The Foundation and the Old Girls’ Association in the acquisition of these exquisite works. The College was also thrilled to share the spectacular new artwork which was commissioned this year – Girl on Country. This is a co-created piece as students, staff, parents and old girls worked with Quandamooka weavers Sonja and Leecee Carmichael to create a cyanotype telling the story of Moreton Bay College on the land of the Quandamooka people. We would also like to acknowledge the support of parent Alison Kubler, Dr Renata Buziak and John Stafford and his team at OneSpace Gallery, in the production of this magnificent artwork. It hangs proudly in the Music Centre and will be a lasting memory of the College history, and a legacy for future Bay girls.
On Tuesday we officially celebrated Founders’ Day with two formal services – one in Primary and the other in Secondary. At each, we acknowledged the devotion of Miss Oriel Handley to the Arts at MBC and, as an honorary Old Girl of the College, we posthumously awarded her the Founders’ Day medal, inducting her into the MBC Hall of Fame. Due to COVID restrictions, her family were unable to attend the services but were able to join us online. Her nephew Geoff Buttsworth wrote to the College last week,
As a family, we wish to thank Moreton Bay College, Mrs Stewart and others involved for the honour that you are bestowing on Miss Handley’s legacy by inducting her into the Moreton Bay College Hall of Fame. I know that she would be overwhelmingly appreciative being selected for the MBC Medal and the Hall of Fame recognition. I wish the College every success on Founders’ Day and in the future. On behalf of Miss Handley’s family, thank you for everything you’ve done to preserve her memory.
The College will ensure the medal is presented to the family at a later date.
In his above remarks, Mr Buttsworth used the word legacy to refer to Miss Handley. The word legacy means; something that is a part of your history or that remains from an earlier time.
This week we have celebrated Miss Handley and her place in our rich history, most particularly her love for the Arts. However, Miss Handley was also a shining example of service and inspired generations of MBC girls to serve others and demonstrate an abiding care for those less fortunate. The latter values and another significant ‘seed’ planted by the progressive Greenes - Sport and Physical Education - saw the girls combine both physical activity and the desire to serve when our girls from Prep to Year 12 participated in the Colour Run. It was certainly a colourful event, and we thank the P&F for their work to bring this idea to fruition. While some monies raised will help them fund some important projects at the College – 50% of the monies will go to the Solar Buddy campaign as we share their efforts to Light up Vanuatu. It was a fabulous day of celebrating the culture, people and values of the College – there was singing, dancing, games, a picnic and cake! May I extend our thanks to the Old Girls’ Association for their generous gift of the birthday cakes which the girls enjoyed!
The week of celebrations will end tomorrow evening with a Cocktails and Cabaret event hosted by The Moreton Bay Colleges’ Foundation. We thank them for their support of Founders’ week and look forward to an evening of outstanding entertainment from the Music, Dance, Art and Drama departments. The art works of Anne Greene and the new cyanotype, Girl on Country, will also remain on display for guests to enjoy.
The College is blessed with an impressive legacy, gifts handed down to us by generations of strong leaders, students and staff. We hope this week has appropriately honoured all who have been a part of the College story, which for 120 years has been educating young women of courage and hope.