Farewell and Thanks from
Alek Wetzlich, 2024 P&C President

As many of you will know, this is my last year at Ferncourt and my last as President of the P&C. I want to thank you all for the incredible privilege of representing this community, for your support and for coming together to do what it is that we do so well: support our school.

I have a bit of an Oscars speech of thank yous but every one of these people deserves far more than just this acknowledgement so please be patient with me.

This P&C would be nowhere without the amazing exec who worked together this year to bring you events like 

• Souper Music

• Trivia night

• Election day mini fair

• Halloween disco

• Welcome BBQ

On that, I would like to thank the fundraising powerhouse that has been Cass Boyle and Zoe Silverwood, supported by Katie Moor. These events are not only important to bringing funds in to the P&C but also to building this amazing community and the friendships that it brings.

Our Vice Presidents: Aditya Tater and Sophie Higgins have supported me every step of the way and encouraged me when I floundered.

Yvette and Marcel: thank you for keeping me on track when I go off piste, as I am prone to do. You keep us organised and I am so grateful for that!

Dannie, we have had a close partnership and I value all that you taught me and your gentle guidance when I needed to put my big girl pants on.

Pat, I don’t know how we survived without you! You’ve turned a lot around for the community with the whatsapp group and the ongoing comms, helping us all to feel connected and on top of all that goes on at the school. You’ve been an amazing asset to the team.

Beyond the exec, we have the subcommittees who power away to keep so many of our kids’ activities going.

Paula and Nicole, you have been such advocates for music at the school, not just running the strings and band programs but driving Soundfest and the ongoing engagement of the students with music at Ferncourt.

Alba organises all the extracurricular programs at the school that our kids get to participate in. We’ve been so lucky to have you do this and introduce so many new opportunities.

Belle, thank you for running the second-hand uniform shop which so many of our families use throughout the year.

Janine and Kate, thank you for all that you’ve done as our environment committee! The garden and the learning it provides for the kids is wonderful, and so are the programs that you have driven like the gardening bees and Cooling the Schools.

We also ran other fundraisers like the Newtown Jets cake stall, the Easter raffle, Mother’s Day flowers, and xmas trees. The list of people who have supported us on these is too long to call out but some of the notable mentions are:

• Putting the soup into Souper music: Samia and her family got more veggies into our kids in on night than we could probably normally do in a month!

• Liane for your delicious catering at Trivia and Danae for organising the all-important drinks.

• Kel and Danny for your stellar MCing on the night and Damon and Belle for taking one for the team and running the bar.

• The members of Hot Flush for the tunes on the night which I believe inspired much enthusiasm on the dance floor.

• Thanks to everyone who helps out with our many BBQs, especially Maree and Lyall, Errin, Amanda and Jerome who I don’t think have missed one yet!

• Thanks to the plant propagators, the bakers, the crafters and those brave enough to run the eftpos machines. 

• Thanks to Debbie for bringing treats to the meetings.

• Thanks to Sahil for her incredible facepainting stamina!

• Marcel and Katrina, thanks for braving the rain of Mother’s Day flowers and Marcel for organising the Xmas trees! It’s been seamless.

• Thanks to all those who helped run games and the cake stall at the Halloween disco and also those who stayed to help us clean up – a vital and often overlooked role!

• Thanks to Dannie and those who organised a chocolate factory worth of donations for the easter raffle.

• To the group of kids who come and help at every fundraiser that we do: you guys are absolute legends and deserve all the extra cookies I can swing your way!

• Thanks to Wil for always being so generous with letting us use the canteen.

• And of course a big thanks to our teachers who support us in planning and running events and to Mitch and to Emma who I have worked so closely with this year. We couldn’t do this without you.

Lastly, thanks to the whole Ferncourt community for supporting our fundraisers, for coming to our events and grabbing a democracy sausage or a cake or a plant. I encourage you all to continue to support the P&C by joining, attending meetings where you can and staying involved. Support the volunteers who keep these events going even if it’s just by saying thanks because we’re very lucky to have them.