20 Year Reunion
Class of 1997
“20 years – already?!” This was the overwhelming reaction as word spread of the Class of 97, 20 year reunion. After spending two decades feeling like a fraud, pretending to be a grown-up but still feeling like an overwhelmed teenager, returning to Kilbreda on 28 October this year felt like coming home.
70 nervous and excited women gathered in the Meeting Room, thrilled to see so many familiar faces and our past teachers who so generously gave up their time to welcome us back. The atmosphere in the room was a reminder of the joy and optimism that Kilbreda inspires in us – how lucky we are to have such fond memories of our high school experience! Catching up with these accomplished, interesting, resilient and fun women, our time back at school flew as we shared news, laughed, and recalled many anecdotes of our time as students.
A tour of parts of the College was the highlight of our reunion. The corridors were again filled with our loud chatter, shrieks and giggles and many hilariously ‘insightful’ comments about the halls and Science Labs still having “the same smell”. Looking back, it is hard to believe that we were ever entrusted with free-run of the corridors of the beautiful old Coffee Palace building. Its conversion to an administration and staff area places us in the lucky group of women who had the pleasure of learning in such a charming environment, something we probably did not appreciate at the time!
A climb to the top of the Tower was the cherry on top of our return to Kilbreda. It was amazing to finally experience the view, from the Peninsula to the Dandenongs to the Eureka Tower and to search for our name plaques on the tower walls.
Our night did not end there though; with so much to catch up on we were joined by at least a dozen more girls at Mordy HQ where we partied again like it was 1997.
A huge thanks to Damian Smith, Maree Clark, Suzanne Grima, Joe Gallo, Penny Golding, and Kylie Montesanti for looking after us and sharing in this special afternoon and to Denise Leonard for her efforts in arranging such a wonderful visit.
Lucinda Merakis (née Nolan)
Class of 1997
Past Pupil of Distinction Nominees
It was a pleasure to host the Class of 1997 for their 20 Year Reunion and also worth noting that two of our Past Pupils of Distinction came from this wonderful group of students and we once again congratulate them both on this wonderful achievement.
Natalie Karamanis (née Allcock)
Natalie has a Bachelor of Social Science and Bachelor of Criminal Justice Administration, as well as a Postgraduate degree in Family Therapy.
For the last 14 years she has worked in Child Protection and is currently a Senior Child Protection Practitioner with the Department of Health and Human Services.
In her role Natalie provides education to those working closely with children in need of expert care, supervises and mentors new staff, works collaboratively with hospitals and foster care agencies and focuses on providing a therapeutic approach to engaging and working with children amongst many other things.
Katie Ditchburn
Katie studied Visual and Performing and has been a passionate and committed contributor to the arts and entertainment industry for over 20 years.
She Is an accomplished choreographer and industry leader and has helped to create theatrical productions which have toured across Australia and the world.
Katie currently works for the Entertainment Store and Lifelike Touring and has specialised in children's branded entertainment for many years, looking after up to 1800 events for major international brands including Disney, Nickelodeon and Warner Brothers.
Denise Leonard (née Morrissey)
Chair Kilbreda Past Pupils’ Network Committee