Excelsior At 81: Giving Thanks on Founder’s Day

Saturday | January 28, 2012

Alumni in South Florida were fulsome in their praise of the alma mater when they marked Founder’s Day 2012 with the second annual Service of Thanksgiving at the Holy Family Episcopal Church in Miami Gardens last Sunday, January 22.

There was no scrimping on the hosannas as about two dozen members of the Excelsior Alumni Association of Florida lined two pews of the church and joined other alumni-regular members of the church, arrayed around the pews-to pay homage to Excelsior’s 81st anniversary.

Three quarters way into the service, inside the ornate church with its spare white walls and soaring ceiling, President Althea Brown Robinson made her way to the pulpit to deliver an eloquent and well-received synopsis of the Excelsior Story.

“The disappointment of one individual at 15 years old and the seeming bad decision of another gave birth to a wonderful dream, an idea, a resolution, a commitment and a reality” she said in recounting how a young A. Wesley Powell was turned away from a prominent Jamaican high school, because he was deemed to be too old, and was inspired to found his own school.

“We can only feel blessed that our beloved founder A. Wesley Powell followed through on his pledge on January 19, 1931 some 81 years ago.” She continued.

“As alumni we cannot make that day go unnoticed. As Excelsorians, we walk through life remembering and being inspired by the significance of our school crest, our school name and our motto”.

Alumnus George Harris, a member of the Church’s vestry, introduced the president, and Reverend Ward, the lead pastor, later formally welcomed the visitors to his church and implored them to return more often.

“It was great to see so many alumni” said alumnus Anthony Hudson, one of the visitors. “It was a very nice service and Althea really made us proud with her speech. We should really make this church our home church and publicize the function earlier. I am confident that our Founders Day Service in Florida will grow each year with increasingly more alumni attending”.

It is a sentiment endorsed by the Board of the Alumni Association as it seeks to make the annual Founder’s Day Service a calendar.
Following the service the entire group retired to the church’s basement to socialize and share in the refreshment which was sponsored by the alumni group.