What a fabulous party we enjoyed last Saturday night! There were so many highlights making this such a memorable night of nights – from the ethereal snow angels greeting our guests at the front gate, to the magical snow falling over the silvery dance floor and the hip tones of Matty and Andrew belting out Calvin Harris, Ed Sheeran and more. The touch of forest and midnight sky in the Wintergarden gave guests a hint of the magic wintry scene that awaited them in the Hall.  The drama of entering the Hall – the impact of the forest against the wintry midnight blue sky – was magical as were the hovering balloon clouds above – pure delight adding more drama and visual layers across the expanse of Hall.  Our laden auction tables quickly tempted guests who enthusiastically joined in the bidding and supported our night’s campaign to support the Science facilities upgrade.

The strong pure voices of Phoebe Hamilton (Year 12) and Charlotte Aston (Year 8) mesmerized our guests as our Opening Performers and our, MC Rohan Sutherland, kept smiling as he worked hard to keep our packed program moving along through the Live Auction and Raffle Draws.

Our dedicated bar staff worked happily and tirelessly throughout the night serving our wonderful wines donated by many generous donors and Senior Receptionist Lesley kindly became super-host of our Champagne Bar organising sales of bling rings for our Squires Loft Champagne Bar. Our Lucky Winner was Felicity Bongiorno who is now a proud owner of the beautiful pearl ring from generous donor Jan Logan.

Dody Oliver and her wonderful team of Annie, Scott, Nin and crew provided us with restaurant quality food, a sensational effort particularly when they were working from the underground carpark. Our VCE students and friends provided exemplary food service supporting the catering crew and must have clocked up thousands of steps weaving around tables. We had so many wonderful donors supporting our food and bar service – what an endorsement of their goodwill to our community and to our night. We were able to cater for all our guests with restaurant quality food, fine wines and professional service with their collective generosity.

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our Dark Blue sponsor South Yarra BMW, who allowed us to aim sky high from the beginning with their very generous support. Heartfelt thanks to each and every sponsor, donor, supporter and friend – the following list is long and we extend a very big appreciative thankyou to each of you.

Thank you to all our fabulous Silent Auction contributors, listed below. We thank you for your generosity and we trust you’ll enjoy the patronage of our supportive community in return:

Our A Winter’s Night Raffle (Permit 10234/18) was drawn at 10.30pm by our Principal Mrs Michelle Carroll and we congratulate the following winners:

There are plenty more people that we would like to thank for believing in our vision of A Winter’s Night and allowing us to host a magical memorable evening:

• our amazing Year 12 parents who turned up in huge numbers the week prior to help set up and again early Sunday morning to help clear and clean up,
• our talented musical performers ably supported by Tim Collins: Charlotte Aston, Phoebe Hamilton
• our wonderful roving fashion illustrators: Jessie Caine, Charlotte Fortey and Harriet Fortey
• our MC Rohan Sutherland and our Auctioneer Iain Carmichael
• the Administration, Business Office, Marketing, Media, Music and Maintenance teams of St Catherine’s School including Sonam Agarwal, Sandra Bremmers, James Brown, Paul Cross, Willa De Freitas, Joe Esposito, Stuart Galbraith, Ruth Gavin, Lesley Kenyon, Dominic Loydell, Nate McCabe, James Niaura, Meredith Taylor, John Toulantas, Megan Towers, Petalyn Walker and Peter White
• our Art team headed by Brigid Weereratne, Virginia Guest and all art staff, and Andrea Donaldson along with all the students who collaborated on the fabulous Barbreck artworks
• our ELC team headed by Sarah Bethune and the students who collaborated on the gorgeous ELC artworks
• our many sewers including Erica Marriott and the women in Abi Krause’s family who kindly sewed the table napkins for us
• the donors of all the christmas trees (including our two beautiful Bambis peeking through the forest from InviteMe and The Woodsfolk), and not forgetting
• our glamorous and generous guests attending!

Finally, a huge shout out to our A Winter’s Night committee who undertook the task of creating and hosting this premiere biennial event for the School community. Grateful thanks to Felicity Bongiorno, Liz Campbell, Jane Favaloro, Sarah Fraser-Smith, Erica Gill, Peta Gray, Tamsin Greig, Annette Koco, Abi Krause, Caroline McAllister, Nicolle McCurdy, Georgina Murdoch, Julie-Anne Pagnin, Tiffany Pascoe, Marnie Pringle, Jane Templeton and Nicole Thomas.
It took a committed committee and community to make this night so memorable and we thank each and every one of you.

Mrs Liz Addison-Baker and  Mrs Lisa Steven
Committee Conveners