Parents, faculty and alumni celebrated Trinity’s 50-year milestone at the Golden Jubilee on Saturday, Sept. 15. The culminating event of the week’s 50th anniversary celebration featured music, dancing and a special program to commemorate the school through the years.
The Jubilee, which took place at Full Sail Live and lasted from 7 to 10 p.m., accommodated about 350 attendees. The price of attendance was $50 for the 50th. Parent Regulations Manager and Major Gifts Officer Elizabeth McIntosh, along with Trinity’s Board of Trustees and Alumni Advisory Board, planned the event over the course of the past year. McIntosh said that they hoped for it to be a Trinity family reunion rather than a fundraiser. Throughout the night, a DJ played songs from the ‘60s through the 2000s, so that guests of all ages could enjoy the music.
“We wanted to make this a little different [from previous fundraisers],” McIntosh said. “We wanted to have the chance to show a video; we wanted to have the chance to have music; we wanted to have the chance to give it a different feel.”
During the program, guests watched a video of Trinity’s three most recent headmasters, Jay St. John, Craig Maughan and Byron Lawson, sharing their thoughts about the Trinity family, the students and the school’s growth.
“What is nice about having Mr. St. John, Mr. Maughan, and Mr. Lawson all speak is that they all have such a love for this place, even though their times were very different,” McIntosh said.
Ray Herod ‘72, Frank Wright ‘89 and Paul Perkins ‘84 talked about their times at Trinity, and current Head of School Byron Lawson also spoke. English teacher Susan Lilley, Orlando’s poet laureate, concluded the pro- gram with a reading of her poem “I Learned It Here.” In the poem, Lilley compiled lessons that many alumni learned from Trinity Prep, from how to write a lab report to the power of friendship.
While the night celebrated Trinity’s history, McIntosh said it was also meant to emphasize the future of Trinity.
“The highlight of the night [was] honoring our three surviving heads of school and their excitement about the future of Trinity Prep,” McIntosh said. “Everybody is on the same page about why the future of Trinity Prep matters.”
