Old Stoic Day
11 September 2021
After a rather long absence with no Old Stoic Events, It was wonderful to be able to welcome 200 Old Stoics and their families, back to Stowe for our Annual Old Stoic Day on Saturday 11 September.
This year, we invited Old Stoics celebrating the 60th, 50th, 40th, 30thand 25th anniversary of their departure from Stowe to gather for the occasion. We were delighted to bring together such a large number of Old Stoics for the day, allowing everyone to meet up with friends from their year and make also make new ones.
The day began, in the Marble Hall with tea and coffee, followed by a short but moving Chapel Service, delivered by The Head, Dr Anthony Wallersteiner and Mark Austin. The collection was taken in support of Noah Cosby (Upper Sixth, Temple), who suffered a terrible accident in March of this year, Noah broke his back in two places and is paralysed from the chest down. The collection will go to support Noah Cosby’s physiotherapy and rehabilitation. After the service, our guests were invited to returned to their boarding houses for tours lead by Stoics.
We would like to thank the Stoics who lead the boarding house tours for our guests. Old Stoics are always very eager to revisit their old dorms and see the changes since their days. After the tours our guests gathered for drinks on the South Portico for a warm welcome from the Head, Dr Anthony Wallersteiner and an update on news from the School, followed by the Chair of the Old Stoic Society, Hannah Durden (Nugent 01), who gave a speech to thank everyone for coming and remind everyone of all the Old Stoic events taking place this side of Christmas. Our guests then dined in the State Rooms, tucking into a nostalgic school lunch laid on by our excellent catering team.
After lunch, a host of activities were laid on for our guests, including watching the rugby, playing golf, and tours of the landscape gardens. Towards the end of the afternoon, everyone gathered for a delicious afternoon tea and music kindly provided by Craig Greene (Chandos 07) to round off the day. With the sun still shining, our guests were able to enjoy the remainder of the day on the South Portico.
As ever, it would be impossible run Old Stoic Day without the expert help of many departments at Stowe, including the General Office, Security, Parking, House Staff and SHPT teams all giving their time to assist with welcoming our guests. The stars of the show were the Catering team, lead on the day by Debbie Kelly-Greaves, who laid on an array of delicious feasts throughout the day for our guests, alongside the hundreds of meals they serve for Stoics, Staff and Parents on a normal weekend. A great many thanks to all who helped us and to all those who joined us for the day.