Cobus Visagie, bekende Springbok-vasskopstut, het die eerste Polla na die Covid 19-uitbraak in Londen bygewoon en doen verslag oor die skemerkelkgeleentheid op 17 Maart vanjaar, waar nie net die skoollied gesing is nie, maar ook diep dinge oor fondswerwing en sakesukses gepraat is.
The London Polla managed to arrange our first gathering after the outbreak of the pandemic, on Thursday the 17th of March, by way of a Drinks Reception at the Mayfair based offices of Stonehage Fleming, courtesy of the founder and old boy, Giuseppe Ciucci (1981). The event was attended by Old Boys ranging from 1960 (Gert Lindeque) to 2019 vintages and best represented by Old Boys from 1991 and 1994.
It is a surreal experience to be able to sing the School Song with your Alma Mater in the centre of London and enjoy the company of old friends.
We also managed to have the Rector, Mr André van Staden, in attendance and he presented The PRG Experience, which was very well received. This created a lot of dialogue and engagement on future projects of the school requiring funding.
Giuseppe was the guest speaker and spoke about his “Road to Success” with building out Stonehage from a small business in his twenties to a business managing multi-billion dollar wealth and asset management portfolios today. A major take away for me was that he became a donor to PRG initiatives from a very early stage in his professional career.
The fundraising efforts of the UK Polla towards the PRG Foundation has been one of the most successful Old Boy initiatives in recent times and we currently support three grade 10 scholars, namely Adeeb Boraine, Caleb Diedricks and Reece Heaton.
We are sincerely grateful to all our UK Old Boys who contributed so far. We have already raised more than £17,000 and we are planning new events to bolster our efforts to support the PRG Foundation moving forward.
Cobus Visagie
