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The two schools have benefited much from the generosity of the women in the Mothers’ Clubs. For many years the children were treated to Christmas parties, where gifts, sweets and ice-cream were distributed by Mr Clarke impersonating Father Christmas. Book prizes and scholarships to reward the top students, food and clothing for the poor, bedding for the sick bay, tumbling mats for the gymnasts, a projector and tape recorder, uniforms for the School Band, a piano for the Class for the Partially Sighted, are only a tiny proportion of the gifts to the schools from the Mothers’ Clubs. In 1952, the Mothers’ Club even arranged a reunion of old scholars. The high-school Mothers’ Club funded an annual scholarship, contributed £100 to the school magazine each year, and paid for fixtures and equipment for the school, such as $1274 for a new piano and electronic equipment in 1975. In 1977, the club sponsored a memorial to John Thurgood, who was killed in a motor accident returning from Mirimbah; in 1978, it sponsored another for Alleyne Sier.3
One of the Mothers’ Club’s favourite charitable activities was the funding of a cot at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. In 1964, the hospital bestowed life membership on Mrs Elizabeth Rodgers in appreciation of her forty years’ work as convener of the Princes Hill School auxiliary.4 Unfortunately, dwindling membership forced the club to cease its association with the hospital in 1972.5
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