Bernie's 2 Minute Friday

John Crennan has been a key figure in the Australian motorsports industry, utilising his sales knowledge and people skills to help establish Holden as a dominant force in V8 Supercars throughout the 90's and 2000's. 

John cites his father, who worked at General Motors for 43 years, as a major inspiration, as well as his uncle who was a legendary Ford dealer. John's passion for the industry was clear even from his time at St Bernard's - as the day after his last exam, he embarked on his first role with General Motors Holden in the mail room, aged 17. Encouraged by his father, he then secured a sales cadetship, and swiftly moved up the ranks to join the executive team in just nine years. 

John reflected on his lessons from the mail room as being pivotal for his entire career, giving him "a knowledge and understanding of every single pocket of GMH...to which many people who had been closeted at their desk for five years had never been exposed" (Automotive Dealer Magazine). 

Joining the motorsport team in 1978, John was instrumental in creating the Holden Special Vehicles and Holden Racing Team brands. Fully formed in 1990, HRT went on to compete in the V8 supercars and secured eight championship wins. John was also involved in what was then known as the HSV Dealer Team, which took back-to-back championship wins in 2006-07. 

John has forged a legacy and impact in the industry that not many can match. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours! 

Image via Go Auto

After a successful run this year and thanks to the support of Bendigo Community Bank Keilor East, we're very excited to announce that the SBOCA Bowls Day is back for 2025! It will be held on Sunday the 9th of February at Aberfeldie Community Bowls Club. Play will start at 10am so please arrive early for registration.

Get your team of 3 together or come as a pair or individual, and you'll have the chance to win cash from a $3000 prize pool! There will also be lunch and refreshments provided - so whether you want to bowl for glory or simply kick back in the summer sun, this is the day for you.

We invite all from the St Bernard's family - Old Collegians, current students and family members - to participate. Bookings are $50 per person and can be made at this link: https://www.trybooking.com/CXMJM or through the QR code above.

For inquiries or any further information please contact:

Gerard Mahoney (Community Bank Keilor East)   Mobile: 0412 165 912    Email: rollston@optusnet.com.au 

or Ben Lamaro (St Bernard's)    Phone: 03 9289 1106    Email: blamaro@sbc.vic.edu.au

It's been great to see lots of new sign-ups to our new alumni platform Alumnly over the past few weeks!

Alumnly is designed to offer you extra engagement with our fantastic old collegians community. Users can post photos, make connections, stay updated on upcoming events, network for business or job opportunities, and stay in touch with the school. Old boys have already begun networking, updating their profiles and reminiscing with photos from back in the day.

Upon logging in for the first time, we kindly ask you to review and update your contact and other relevant details to ensure we can stay connected and informed. We have sent out sign-up emails in recent weeks, but if you haven't received these, you can sign up at the link on this page: SBOCA Alumni - St Bernard's College.

An important note - at the moment changing your primary email address in Alumnly can only be done by a St Bernard's admin. Please contact us at alumni@sbc.vic.edu.au and we can update your email address as soon as possible.

We have some fantastic events planned for our alumni next year, including Reunions, St Bernard’s Foundation Events and St Bernard’s Old Collegians Association (SBOCA) Events. These are a great way to stay connected to our community and Alumnly will help you stay updated and informed on all of them.  

We would love to see even more sign-ups in the coming weeks to continue building an exciting and supportive old collegians online community!

The 2024 Chris Lane Golf Day took place on the 22nd of November and was once again a success, with 60 players taking on the 18-hole course and keeping up good spirits despite fierce 37-degree heat. It was a close contest for the top three team prizes. Individually, players tried their luck at the Nearest the Pin and Longest Drive competitions, or made wagers to see if they could score some cash. A special mention to Phil Baravecchio, who not only ran the betting hole but also made sure everyone was hydrated with water or an ice-cold beer to handle the heat!

Congratulations once again to Dean Marnell, Steve Gray, Ray Kenny, and Kevin McGuire, who took out the Chris Lane Cup for 2024, and to all our prize winners:

2nd Place: Bill Leropoulos, Tony Cornish, Dave White, Nick Schultz

3rd Place: Steve Perrett, Tim Harvey, Tim Sullivan, Shane Doyle

Nearest the Pin (10th Hole): Dean Marnell

Nearest the Pin (17th Hole): Tim Sullivan

Longest Drive: Xavier Goring

A heartfelt thank you to Medway Golf Club for hosting and catering, our major sponsor MNG Lawyers and hole sponsor Bendigo Bank, and Scotchman's Hill Winery, Cathedral Lodge and Numurkah Golf and Bowls Club for generously providing raffle prizes for the day.

Photos of the day can be accessed via Alumnly - link here.

Thanks to all the players for a great turnout and we hope to see even more people at our 2025 Golf Day, which will be held on Friday the 21st November - save the date!

After enduring some challenges post Covid the St. Bernards College Foundation has embarked on a new chapter! The Foundation will be very active in 2025, with significant involvement in the College's exciting Quays Project as it helps drive our capital campaign.

They will also continue to oversee Hall of Fame inductees, including a new Rising Star category for our younger generation. If you know of a rising star aged up to thirty-five, please reach out and tell us who it is! We'd love to see nominations from the community.

The Foundation, in support of the College ethos, continues to provide pathways for Catholic families via equity scholarships, but also provides merit scholarships for academic excellence, as well as funds towards general excellence, music and other scholarships. It is a forum for us as beneficiaries of the College experience to recognise in a tangible way our gratitude to the great institution that is St Bernard's.

We invite you to support these missions by making a donation to the St Bernard's College Foundation. Every donation over $2 is tax-deductible, making it a meaningful way to contribute to the future of our students and the College community. You can also mark if you are willing to donate on your Alumnly profile, so we can help you give back to the College where you can. We will be holding a 'Giving Day' in June 2025 where all alumni will be invited to donate.

Follow this link to donate on our new fundraising page: Fundraising Page | St Bernard's College Foundation 

Thank you for considering supporting the St Bernard’s College Foundation. Every contribution makes a difference!

Our new segment gives us a Bernies spin on the #flashbackfriday trend! Each issue we'll delve into the St Bernard's archives and find photos, objects or awards that will give us a trip down memory lane.

With our Year 12's recently graduating and having received their ATAR's yesterday, we checked in with the Class of 1987 for how they were feeling around this time, with some excerpts from the 1987 Clairvaux. 

Bert Werden, our College Captain that year, had an insightful article that highlighted some of the achievements of that year - including the strengthening of ties with St Coumba's and Ave Maria, and a highly successful St Bernard's Day celebration, where according to Bert; "one could be forgiven for thinking they were at the Royal Show". He also teases then Principal Br Brian Bond for supporting the Geelong Cats - it might be hard for our younger readers to imagine, but there was a period of time when Geelong weren't in finals!

While a lot has changed about our exams, based on this cartoon the level of stress clearly has remained the same!

Each Year 12 student had a small profile with a sentence about their future plans - with a wide range of ambitions such as playing basketball nationally, studying at university, travelling the world, or becoming a chef, hairdresser, engineer, pilot, journalist - the list goes on. One student even aimed "to create the next Beatles"!

As always, thank you to our wonderful volunteer archivists over the years, who have built up a great collection.

The St Bernard's Old Collegians Association is excited to announce that the SBOCA Grant program will continue in 2025! 

The Global Gateway Grant is available for Old Collegians planning international study, and the Leadership in Community Grant to help fund those who are making a positive difference. 

Check out our interview with Simon Vitelli (class of 2019) for a taste of what the Global Gateway grants can help you achieve! SBOCA Grants Program - Mr Simon Vitelli 

For application details or more information, please contact Ben Lamaro at blamaro@sbc.vic.edu.au.

We love connecting with alumni to see how they can help current students in their career exploration, planning and decision making. There’s richness in what alumni bring to the careers conversation. Neither of us can speak into occupations or universities, vocations or outcomes in the various fields that students are now exploring as much as alumni with professional and firsthand experiences can!

When you’re creating your profile on Alumnly, it would be a tremendous help to our current students if you could fill out – in addition to the relevant ‘Willing to Help’ fields – the 'Field of Expertise’ tab. This means that when we search for alumni who are keen to give back to the SBC community and help in the careers space, we can know exactly where your study and professional experience lies.

We are most in need of:

• Guest speakers for careers events in Year 9, and Years 11-12
• Mentors for Year 12
• Workplace employers for students in Years 10, 11 and 12
• Employment opportunities for post-school

If you’d like to learn more about our careers program at SBC or to let us know how you can assist us in helping our students, please email swoodhouse@sbc.vic.edu.au or jmiles@sbc.vic.edu.au - your help will be greatly appreciated!

Sarah Woodhouse and Jo Miles

Careers Department – St Bernard’s College

As this will be our last Bernies 2 Minute Friday for 2024, we would like to wish you and all our community a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We hope your holidays are filled with peace, happiness and community spirit. We'll see you in 2025!