St. Mary’s Alumni reunion strengthens sisterhood

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 20 September 2017, 12:00AM

The St. Mary’s Class of 1970's reunion ended on Monday night with a ceremony at the Samoa Cultural Centre. 

The Group of St. Mary’s alumni who call themselves “Amamus 1970” had come full circle after five days of fellowship, fun and giving back to the St. Mary’s College community during their time in Samoa.

The group had just returned from a weekend of festivities held mostly in Savai’i where they were hosted by the Vaimoana Resort. 

This was the first time these former St. Mary’s students had organised a reunion and from all accounts it was successful starting with their significant donation last week to their old school. 

Class reunion organizer, Lena Rivers, told the Samoa Observer about the meaning behind their group name/theme - Amamus. 

 “Our school motto is “ Agaga Kerisiano” and this spirit of love is behind everything that we do,” she said. 

“Actually when we all entered college in 1970 we had this nun who taught us Latin, so in keeping up with that tradition we came up with the name for our reunion motto  “Amamus” which means “ We love.”

 “We were thinking about contributing to a scholarship or donating money to our school and then we decided its better to go talk to the nuns and see what they really need and they told us that they needed projectors for their classrooms. 

“Now not all our class mates were able to make this reunion in Samoa but they still put in money to buy the projectors for the St. Marys’ college community.”

Some of these women have not seen their classmates since college and many of them remarked that these types of reunions only served to strengthen their sisterhood by keeping them connected to a shared experience and Christian philosophy.

“I think it was something that the nuns instilled in us and it’s ingrained very deeply in our hearts,” said Lena Rivers, “now how will I explain this?… it’s like a tree, you have the trunk and we are the branches growing in different ways and directions but we always come back to our foundation, that’s how I would explain our sisterhood.”

The sisterhood of the Amamus 1970 plan to reunite again after three years and are looking to Brisbane Australia for their next celebration.

By Elizabeth Ah-Hi 20 September 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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