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Mighty Pat - and the KES festival cornerstones

 




The Easter festivals on the go at St Stithians, St John’s and King Edward at the moment don’t happen by accident. The planning for the next year’s event typically starts the week after this year’s event ends. In fact, I’m sitting this week in the organisation’s offices at King Edward’s and I’ve been hearing the indefatigable and ever-cheerful festival organiser, Derron van Eeden, talking about next year all the time. The schools are already beginning to accept their invitations for 2024, which will be KES’s 20th festival.

There’s an army at work in and around the organiser’s office. Some are new faces to me, but most I’ve been seeing every time for years. They are all volunteers, their sons all long gone from the school, and yet they stick their hands up every year, and it’s them that have made the festival a long-term success story.

As I walked down Oak Avenue on the first morning I heard whistles blowing on the rugby field and hockey Astro, which meant the boys were playing, which is the whole point of the exercise. And I could smell the braai fires starting up, which is almost as important.

And that’s where I came across one of the longest of those long-serving volunteers, Pat Cotter. The apron he was wearing has ‘Mighty Pat’ embroidered on it, and that’s about right – you can ask anyone at the school.

Pat is a braaier, he’s been doing it on Saturday mornings in the rugby season for 22 years, he tells me, and that includes all 19 Easter Festivals so far.

Pat is a King Edward Old Boy, and the grandfather and father of old boys. He stands four foot-something tall, but he’s a giant in his loyalty and service to the school. He has served on all sorts of committees, including at Old Edwardians – the old boys society.

In his autumn years he is still at it and always the first, according to Derron van Eeden, to put his hand up to do the fried onions again at next year’s festival.   

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