On the first Saturday in July, about 300 sister Hilarians come together in the School Hall for the annual 'Old Girls' luncheon. Some, like Shirley La Borde-Solomon, who makes this yearly pilgrimage from her home in West Palm Beach, Florida, try not to miss the function. The new Executive Committee under president Marguerite-Anne Moore, decided on a Latin Festival this year. The hall was festively decorated with bright red, yellow and green streamers.
For the past five years, the Executive Committee select and pay tribute to Hilarians whom they deem worthy of honour for their achievements. This years honorees were Shirley Turpin, Joyce Gibson-Inniss and Dr Rhoda Reddock.
Turpin, who went to Bishop Anstey High School on an Anglican Girls' Scholarship between 1948 and 1953, has always been a driving force in the Old Hilarians Association. She served for three decades, starting as secretary in1962, and ended her service as President from 1998 to 200. Described as "extremely efficient, innovative and sensitive to the needs of the Association", she was specially praised for co-ordinating a Children's Carnival for years and production of the 2001 Calender in which Hilarians who nurtured the Association were highlighted. Her dedication and commitment to the school has now extended to the fact that she is Secretary/Bursar of the sister school - Bishop's Centenary College.
In paying tribute to Turpin, Daphne Solomon a former President of the Association good-naturedly described her as "a notorious beggar with a variety of victims. A free spirit, kind, generous, and strongwilled with a take charge attitude but a heart in the right place."
Gibson-Inniss, head girl of the school in 1943/1944, studied Dietetics/Nutrition at Mc Donald College of Mc Gill University's Faculty of Agriculture and Home Economics. She started as a dietitian at the Port of Spain General Hospital, and moved to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture at St Augustine which became the University of the West Indies, until her retirement in 1993. She was brought back in December 1995 as Manager of the new Hall of Residence in the Medical Faculty, for a period of two years to January 1998. On January 4, 2002, the hall was officially named after Joyce Gibson-Inniss.
The third honoree, Professor Rhoda Reddock, Head of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies Department at the University of the West Indies, was out of the country. She was said to have been always very good at teaching and imparting knowledge with dignity and a spirit indicative of Hilarians.
At the end of the function, Diane Shurland, chairman of the Carnival Fete Committee presented a cheque for approximately half million dollars, the profits of the 2001 and 2002 Carnival All Inclusive Fetes, to Justice Monica Barnes, chairman of the St Hilary's Foundation. The money will be used in the rebuilding/refurbishing of the School.