Executive Board

President Susan Gerard

Vice President Lynn (Murphy) Robichaux, 1969

Membership Liaisons Peggy (Mcauliffe) Hannick, 1976

Kevin Berns, 1983 Sara Tom

Treasurer Tricia (Berns) Martinez, 1985

Marketing Managers Elizabeth Fox & Libby Wienke

Alumni Relations Maureen (Whelan) Werner, 1950

Event Manager Cara Taylor (Michael Taylor, 1992) List Committee now forming! To volunteer contact Maureen Werner at 962-5079 or mwwerner@sbcglobal.net.

Contact the Alum Assoc. Alum@holyr.org or

Peggy (Mcauliffe) Hannick 314-961-7866.

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Spring 2009

Holy Redeemer Alumni Association

Alum Web site up!

Visit www.holyr.org Click on the Alumni tab for updates. Connect on Facebook.com Join the hundreds of Alum already networking online. Check out new photos and video posted. See inside for details to sign up. It’s free!

Alumni Reunion Sat., June 6th Reunion events and carnival rides at the Parish Picnic. Fri., June 5th Family Fun Night. Upcoming details at www.holyr.org.

Holy Redeemer School’s First Ever Alumni Reunion, Saturday, June 6th!

Join us for the festivities coinciding with the Parish Picnic all day long, Saturday, June 6th. Visit the Alumni tent for food, drink and fellowship. Enjoy carnival rides and games for kids. That afternoon and evening be sure to attend the Alumni specific events:

3:00, 4 and 6 p.m. School Tours by current students 5:00 p.m. Mass with special seating and blessing 6:00-8 p.m. Silent auction under the tent 6:00-9 p.m. Appetizers and drinks under the tent

No need to RSVP, just join us for some or all of the events! Check out who plans to go on Facebook.com where you’ll see that Alum plan to come from far and wide for this event. (We may even get some past teachers to be there too.) A special thank you to reunion contributors: Alum Bob Weber, Class of 1978 and owner of Weber’s Front Row, will cater tasty appetizers from their menu under the Alumni tent; Alum Lynn (Murphy) Robichaux, Class of 1969 and owner of the Empty Nest, for the fantastic items from her store to be auctioned and to all the contributing students, Alum, local businesses and parents for their time and effort.

Take a guided tour of the halls of Holy Redeemer School at the picnic.

This issue’s Alum Flashback features a graduate who may be the oldest living alum of Holy Redeemer School, born on August 15, 1912, and is, as she says, “96 years young.” And young she seems. Blanche lived on her own in her own home until well past her 90th birthday and still lives a very active life for a 96 year old, now a resident of Mary, Queen and Mother Nursing Home on Watson Road. Blanche Mittelberg O’Donnell had many memories from her days at Holy Redeemer School to share. She was in the graduating class of 1926, and finished her days at HR in a class of around 23 students. When Blanche

was at Holy Redeemer, there were only four classrooms in the school, with two grades being instructed in each room. The Dominican nuns not only taught at the school, but lived in the school building as well. She said that one-fourth of the first floor of the school was the nuns’ parlor, and behind that, in what is now the Kin-dergarten classroom, were the nuns’ sleeping quarters. She said the school contained a chapel on the first floor, and the third floor of the school building was unfinished. A tarp covered the floor for the entire time she attended Holy Redeemer.

When asked where the classrooms were located by using the front door as a starting point, Blanche responded that the students didn’t dare use the front door of the school. It was not done! She remembers that Holy Re-deemer Church sat across the street from where it sits now, on the west side of the Selma and Lockwood intersection. There was a small frame house behind the Church that served as the rectory. Blanche remembers her principal while at Holy Redeemer, Sr. Angelica, and one of her teach-ers, Sr. George. Coincidentally, Sr. George was the principal when Blanche’s children began attending Holy Redeemer. All six of her chil-dren graduated from HR with the last one graduating in 1969. One of Blanche’s most vivid memories is that of the Holy Thursday pro-cession. The girls wore white and had wreaths in their hair. They wrote petitions and then burned them during the ceremony. She remembers the HR gym being all the way down in Old Orchard, in a building near Roger’s Produce that still stands today. She remembers going to “downtown” Webster and buying treats in a little store on Gore Avenue. Webster High School, which Blanche called Hampsher High School, was built while Blanche was at Holy Redeemer. She remembers that the Ozark Theater had an outside theater on the east side of the building. Blanche remembered quite a few of the students who graduated from Holy Redeemer in her class. There were the Weir twins, both girls, and the Mulroy twin boys. Like most of the students before and after her, Blanche has fond memories of her time at Holy Redeemer. It has been a constant in her life, as it has for many of us. And so, for now, Blanche Mittelberg O’Donnell reigns as Holy Redeemer School’s oldest alum. If there are any HR graduates older than 96, they’ll have to let us know!

Alum Flashback

History

Celebrating our History 100 Year Book For Sale The Holy Redeemer Alumni Associa-tion is offering a 100 year Anniver-sary book about Holy Redeemer School for just $10/each, plus $2.50 for mailing. The 55 page book is rich in photos and facts from the school’s past 100 years from 1901—2001. To order send your $12.50 check made out to the Holy Re-deemer Alumni Association and mail to Elizabeth Fox at: 1120 S. Rock Hill Road, Webster Groves, MO 63119. Look for more historical facts like the following on the Alumni Web site: The year 2001 was not only the 100th year anniversary of Holy Redeemer School, but also the 175 anniversary of the establishment of the diocese of St. Louis in 1826. In 1698 the first Mass was celebrated on the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1770 the first Catholic Church in St. Louis was built—a log cabin structure. St. Louis became known as the “Rome of the West.” The second Catholic Church in St. Louis, “DuBourg’s Cathedral,” replaced the original log cabin church blessed by Bishop DuBourg in 1820. Catholic education in St. Louis began in 1818. Holy Redeemer School erected a new school room in 1901. By 1904 the enrollment was 40 pupils with two rooms operating. In 1909 the Dominican Sisters took over. A con-tract was awarded to build a new school for $40,000 that opened in 1910 with Archbishop Glennon, the Mayor of Webster Groves, assisting at the opening. By 1916 enrollment was up to 150 pupils.

Holy Redeemer launched Accelerated Reader as an extracur-ricular program to improve students’ reading performance in grades 1 - 8 this school year. In less than one year, Holy Re-deemer has built a reading culture. The AR program provides individualized tracking of each student’s progress by testing reading comprehension, vocabulary, literacy skills and text-book quizzes. Holy Redeemer students have accumulated over 7,300 points, representing thousands of books read, and more importantly, understood. It began with a student pep rally where a prize structure coinciding with earned Acceler-ated Reader points was announced amongst back flips and cheering, “Let’s Read!” To date students have earned over 850 prizes, do-nated by local busi-nesses, parents and school organizations. The Accelerated Reader program was made possible by par-ent and teacher volun-teer hours to utilize the school’s newest re-sources to their fullest, the Emily Lemcke Me-morial library and com-puters in the class room. The program provides a consistent ranking system for over 80% of the books in the Emily Lemcke Memorial Library, catalogued by level on the spine to guide students on book choices within their ability level. The AR program tracks stu-dents’ results and even e-mails teachers and parents directly so all can be involved in continually working toward reading improvement. Teachers using Renaissance Learning products, such as AR, achieve higher test scores on state and national tests. Schools using the AR program have found huge increases in students reading proficiency as well as dramatic increases in number of books checked out of the library, reflecting its ability to promote a love of reading.

AR Program Mavens, Lisa Mueller and Meg Clarke, hold a schoolwide pep-a-rally with Clifford the Big Red Dog to launch the program. You can view video at www. Facebook.com.

Holy Redeemer School Today

AR Reading Program Launched

Holy Redeemer School is revamping their Web site and along with it you can now check out Alumni news and updates at www.holyr.org. Just click on the Alumni tab for the latest news and infor-mation on the organization. You can also network with fellow Alum at www.Facebook.com to reconnect with classmates, share photos, even video. Join the hundreds that are already part of the group. Classes are vying to see who can have the most members. It’s free and you can sign up in just five minutes and five easy steps: 1. Go to www.Facebook.com 2. Enter your name, e-mail address, a

password you create, gender and birthday, then click “Sign Up.”

3. You will get a confirmation e-mail right away. Open it and go to the hotlink.

4. The hotlink has 3 optional steps to search contacts by specific name, high school or college you attended, your workplace or city you live in. You can fill in detail or just go to the “Skip This Step” button in the bot-tom right corner.

5. At the next screen click on “Groups” and search for “Holy Redeemer Grade School Alumni” and it will direct you to the page where all the Alum are corresponding. You’re in!

In future visits to the Web site you will be able to go to Facebook.com and after entering your pass word go directly to the “Groups” link to get to the Alumni page. Watch for updates on the picnic and other Alum news and also photos and videos being posted from both the past and present. Many thanks to Alum Kevin Berns (Class of 1983) for setting it up!

Alum Web Site Launched at www.holyr.org

If you would like to volunteer, become a donor or advertise in the next newsletter reaching over 1,700 Alumn contact:

Susan Gerard 314-963-9376

TheGerardFamily@att.net

Thank You Charter Donors! $1,000 was donated by Camille Goehausen in honor of her late husband, Donald, who at-tended Holy Redeemer School in the 1930’s, along with his four siblings. He wanted to make a gift to the school that would help current school families with tuition because he believed his par-ents were not able to give toward his tuition when he was in school. $750 was donated by Greg and Lisa Mueller, parents of current Holy Redeemer students, Greta, Bennett and in a couple of years, Greyson. $250 was donated by Craig and Peggy (McAuliffe) Hannick, Holy Redeemer Class of 1976, and parents of current Holy Redeemer stu-dents, Clare, Kate, Maggie and Marcy Hannick. $200 was donated by The Empty Nest, owned by Lynne (Murphy) Robichaux, Class of 1969. Thank you also to the Parish for funding the printing and mailing of our inaugural newsletters.

Holy Redeemer Parish 17 Joy Ave. Webster Groves, MO 63119-2501 Return Service Requested

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID

St. Louis, MO Permit No. 4952

Don’t miss the first Alumni Reunion, Saturday, June 6th!

• Tours of the school • 5:00 Alumni mass • Food, drink and fellowship under the Alumni tent.

Maureen Werner Excellence Club Previews Specialist

(314) 965-3030 business

Woodbine Center 421 South Kirkwood Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

21 North Gore Webster Groves, MO

63119

314.961.3900 Lynn (Murphy) Robichaux, Owner

8169 Big Bend Webster Groves 314-961-4500 Bob Weber, Owner