The young and the old, present and past students of St. Anne’s College, Kurunegala flocked in their numbers to the college premises and participated in the Annite Jubilee Walk held on Saturday 5th August 2017 starting at 10.00 am.
It was indeed a spectacular pageant. A procession or a walk of such a magnitude was never seen before in the city of Kurunegala.
The college premises, the approach road to the college, St. Anne’s Street, Puttalam Road, Negombo Road, Bazaar Street etc. were all decorated with beautiful jubilee flags in college colours (green, gold and blue), depicting “St. Anne’s 150 years”, which gave a magnificent sight to the city.
All participants were clad in college T-shirts and college caps specially tailored for the occasion. It was gorgeous to see them all assemble at the college grounds, occupying a large area of the vast expanse of land.
There were present students, old Annites of both Kurunegala OBA and the Colombo OBU, present teachers including the Rev. Brothers, a few past teachers, some parents, invitees representing the Holy Family Convent Kurunegala, Maliyadeva Girls and Maliyadeva Boys Colleges etc.
The Chief Guest was the Provincial Visitor of De La Salle Brothers, Rev. Bro. Christy Croos.
The other distinguished guests were the Bishop Emeritus of the Church of Ceylon Kurunegala Rt. Rev. Dr. Kumara Ilangasinghe (an old Annite), Deputy Minister Indika Bandaranayake (an old Annite), Principal of St. Anne’s Rev. Bro. Tarcisius, President of OBA Kurunegala Felician Perera, President of OBU Colombo Cyril Victor.
The proceedings of the day started with playing the National anthem and the St. Anne’s College anthem followed by the hoisting of the National Flag and the College Flag. The hoisting of the flags was done by Rev. Bro. Provincial Visitor, Rev. Bro. Principal, Hon. Deputy Minister, and the President of the OBA Kurunegala.
The length of the procession was over 4 km. with over 4,000 participants. The shop workers, inmates of houses, pedestrians and passersby were all lined up to see the pageant and were enthralled with it. The procession started from the college premises and St. Anne’s Street, wending its way along Puttalam Road, Negombo road up to the Puwakgas handiya. From there turning into Circular Road, leading up to Kadurugas handiya, turning to Colombo Road, Clock Tower and again turning to Puttalam Road and finally ending up at St. Anne’s Street.
Each grade in the school and each old boys batch group had a float to lead them adding eye catching attractions such as limousines, vintage cars, horse carriages, dance troupes and DJ’s etc.
After the walk which ended at about 2.00 pm, the crowd was entertained to a musical session.
Bandula de Silva and Mohan Dayaratne St. Anne’s College OBU Colombo.