St. Joseph's Academy Reunion 2012

Well, it is all over, the lights have been turned out on the first ever St. Joseph's Academy Reunion, July 26th - 29th. What a reunion it was? From all accounts everyone and anyone associated with it are singing the praises of the organizing committee who worked over the last 14 months in putting it together. People like Peter Curran, Neil Carey, Mary Chow and our finance person Mary Poole along with many others. Just over 400 attended the dinner following church for deceased members of our school. A top notch job by Doreen’s catering and Donnini's in serving such a large crowd in record time. There were four night of celebrations that went off like clockwork without a hitch. Registration night was a blast by all accounts of the impromptu dancing by students to the sounds of former student, JOCKO John Glavine. There were many people who returned from other parts of Canada and the United States who were overjoyed to be attending. Some even had their mainland spouses screeched in as we call it. The last serving principal of St. Joseph's Mr. William Hanlon brought greetings on behalf of former teachers. There were a number of students one age 90 and a couple in their mid 80's. One student came from New Brunswick who was 84 I do believe. What would the reunion be if I never mentioned the architect of St. Joseph's school the late Father Meany? He came to our area in 1940 as a young priest becoming the first pastor of St Joseph's Parish. He along with parishioners built St Joseph's from a two room school, to 24 rooms and over 600 pupils at peak time. Father Meany retired from St Joseph's Parish in 1979. We were saddened at the start of our Reunion to have to bury another former student Kevin Murray. Kevin was a great fiddle player for many years. A memory that won't soon be forgotten by former students of St Joseph's is the tragic death of Terry Jackson March 1st 1963. He was killed by a train at the age of 10 following the first Friday Mass that was part of the Catholic faith back then. He would have turned 60 on June 24 of this year. Some student who was there during this period said, “we all went back to school that afternoon as if nothing ever happened". People of St Joseph's Academy we all can hang our heads high and be proud of our former school and students. In my opinion it will take a very longtime to top this reunion. Our reunion motto “St Joseph Our Patron, Guide and Guardian,"