Celebrating Our Past Students & Their Achievements
It is wonderful to stay in touch with the confident and successful young men and women who have matriculated from the College since the first Grade 12 Class in 2001 through our Old Lions Association, and to celebrate their achievements in tertiary studies and the workplace as well as share the joy of their special life events. As our Old Lions Association grows each year, our past students too are enjoying the many opportunities to share their news and reconnect with each other and with the College.
The chairman of the Old Lions Association is Stephen Pettitt, Class of 2014. Steve spent his whole schooling career at Dainfern College and was heavily involved in every aspect from sport to culture to leadership and academics. He then went to Rhodes University to study journalism, where he was made a member of Golden Key, achieved his BJourn and Master’s in Journalism & Media Studies with distinction and made the Dean’s Honours List. He is now the face of Forever Sports, a company he co-owns with his brother.
Steve is really excited about growing the Old Lions Association – “Having coached sport at a school that recently celebrated its 125th anniversary, I have seen first hand the power of a fully functioning alumni association. I want to see the Dainfern College Old Lions become a close community of old boys and girls who maintain a strong and meaningful relationship with each other and with the school long after they have left the College.”
We look forward to reconnecting with our matriculants each year!
Old Lions Committee
The members of the current committee of the Old Lions Association are:
Chairman: Stephen Pettitt (Class of 2014)
Vice-Chair: Charlene Wessels (Class of 2007)
Treasurer: Bradley van der Merwe (Class of 2014)
Projects Manager: Mark Pettitt (Class of 2017)
Committee members: Joel Brandt (Class of 2016), Cicel-John Coetzee (Class of 2008), Joshir Singh (Class of 2018) and Alex Smith (Class of 2014)
We publish news about our alumni as and when we can on our Old Lions Facebook page as well as on Instagram. Should you have any interesting news that you are happy for us to share, or would like further information about the Old Lions Association please contact Mrs Sonia Claassen.
Each year we hold a ten-year reunion dinner for our alumni to celebrate with them this ten-year milestone. This is always a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with old schoolmates and catch up on news of the College and staff.
2015 was a particularly special year in our history when we proudly welcomed a second generation of students to the College for the first time. It was such a special moment when Jessica Dalla Torre (née Lourenco) and Vuyelwa Nodada (née Yako), both of the Class of 2004, brought their children into Grade 0 on the first day of term to start their own journey at Dainfern College.
It is always with much pride that Dainfern College welcomes back its alumni each year. While past students are always welcome to attend functions throughout the year – with winter sports derby days being particularly popular with former students – there are two special occasions each year where the connection with past students is celebrated.
The first is the annual Old Lions Sports Day. Informal matches are held between alumni and the College first teams in cricket, netball, touch rugby and hockey. The old boys usually reign supreme in touch rugby, while the other sports are keenly contested between past and current students. The alumni particularly enjoy the opportunity to play on the College Hockey Astro as many of the older matriculants had left the College before it was built. The evening ends on a social note where alumni, staff and students share memories and catch up on each other’s news.
The 10-year Reunion Dinner is the highlight of the Old Lions calendar. Each year we invite back the alumni from the class that matriculated a decade before for a wonderful evening of reconnection with old school friends and teachers. These evenings are always filled with ‘Do you remember when…’ and the slideshow highlighting their time at the College is inevitably cause for much laughter and nostalgia.
