From the executive Desk: 2021 Wrigley Day Message from OGA National President

2021 Wrigley Day Celebration THEME: A Charge to Keep I Have

Our theme for this year’s Wrigley Day celebration: “A Charge to Keep I Have” was chosen by
the 2011 YG who are the sponsors for this year’s celebration. Though it is the same theme that
was used last year, explanation from the sponsoring YG for settling on this theme was sufficient
testimony that it is indeed a divinely inspired theme that ought to be embraced with humility.
That the theme resonates across the generational and historical accounts of Wesley Girls’ High
School - past, present and future, is not in doubt.
When Harriet Wrigley arrived in Cape Coast on 15th September, 1836 and saw a small but
promising school being run in the Cape Coast Castle for girls, she at once had a vision. A vision
to revive the dwindling school and set it on a firm and strong footing. It was this vision that
placed a charge upon her to enroll the first 25 girls and to teach them reading and sewing.
Where a vision is strong, it places a charge on the visionary to guard and keep the vision for a
lifetime. In February 1837, barely 5 months after her arrival, Harriet Wrigley passed on
unexpectedly. However, a very efficient mistress was found in the person of Elizabeth Waldron
who understood the vision, embraced it with fervour and for 43 years, she kept the charge.
In 1880, Mrs. Ellis and Sister Evelyn Bellamy both well trained and notable Deaconesses
subsequently took over with zeal and determination and kept the charge entrusted to them.
These two devoted women, in particular Sister Bellamy, kept the charge for 30 years.
This year’s Wrigley Day theme: “A Charge to keep I Have” therefore rings as loud and as clear
as it did for our founders over 180 years ago. We stand individually but much more collectively
to celebrate our Matriarchs who assiduously kept the charge to fulfill their vision.
To borrow the words of the sponsoring Year Group: “the theme seeks to draw us back into who
we are as a family, a sisterhood, a community and as alumnae of our distinguished Alma mater.
It reminds us of the duty we owe to ourselves to love and care for one another, just as Christ
loves us. It places on us a charge to protect the legacy, hold fast to the present successes and
nurture the promise of a brighter tomorrow for future generations.”
Today, we celebrate the long line of dedicated women, who steadfastly followed in the
footsteps of Harriet Wrigley to keep the charge: We remember Olive Compton (OC) and Clarice
Garnett (Garnie) of blessed memory.