Dear Sionians,

Welcome to the final edition of our Sionian for 2014. It has been a wonderful year for our past students with a number of events that continue the connection with the College. The 10, 20, 30, 35 and 40-year reunions; past students talking to our Year Tens about careers; the committee meetings and the recent movie night are just a few examples.

An exciting project that is almost completed here at the College is the building of a new Performing Arts Centre. Many of you will remember the Hall that was originally used for PE classes and most recently for small Drama and Music productions. It had 140 seats, a performance area and a small canteen attached to the side. The new building replaces this Hall with a 341-seat Theatre, a drama classroom, foyer and performance space, change rooms and a café. There was a feature article about it in the local paper recently. The anticipated finishing date is 18th December 2014, so we look forward to having an opening ceremony early next year.

I extend my sincere thanks to Our Past Students’ Committee for the fantastic work they do for this important Association; so much is achieved through the three committee meetings that are held each year.

I encourage past students to think about joining the Committee and to come along and join the fun and worthwhile meetings. We are often blessed to have a couple of Sisters of Our Lady of Sion join us at the meetings too. Maintaining the wonderful con-nection with this College is both rewarding and appreciated.

Our blessings and traditions continue to grow in this 86th year of Our Lady of Sion College, Box Hill!

With every blessing,

Karen Jebb Principal

President’s Report

It’s almost the end of 2014. Each year I feel like time is going

faster and faster (I know I am not alone in this sentiment!).

This year has been another successful one for the Past Students’

Association. On Friday October 10th, we had a movie fundraiser

night at Balwyn Cinemas with 46 people in attendance. The film

was Gone Girl and it was a great night—the movie, the popcorn,

the company of past Sionians, teachers, and of course the Sis-

ters of Our Lady of Sion. My Mum, Gail (nee Turner), and her best

friend, Carmel (nee Roberts), who are both past students of Our

Lady of Sion College, came along—it was a great chance to bring

some generations together.

Most importantly, our group was able to raise funds for our

Daughter of Sion Award that is given to a Year Seven or Eight

student each year who shows leadership, empathy and a strong

sense of social justice. The award comes with $500 for the recip-

ient to donate to the charity of her choice. I am really looking

forward to meeting the recipient of this year’s award at the Night

of Excellence, the College’s annual awards evening!

In November I will be attending my 20 year reunion! I cannot

believe it has been 20 years since the Class of 1994 finished

school. It feels like yesterday that I was walking the corridors

and grounds of the College with my friends. If you are planning a

reunion be sure to send some details, as well as photos, so that

we can publish these memories

in The Sionian.

Our Annual General Meeting for

2015 will be on Tuesday 5th

March 2015. As always we

welcome new members to our

group. Our meetings are a lot

of fun and a great way to main-

tain links with the Sion College

community.

Emily Webb President—Past Students’ Association

Our Lady of Sion College Past Students’ Association

EDITION 19 November 2014

From the Principal

SIONIANS

Past Student Fundraising Event

This year’s Past Students' Association Fundraising event has once again been a great success. Forty six past stu-dents, staff members (current and past) and friends met at The Palace Cinema in Balwyn on Friday 10th of October to reminisce and laugh with old friends, and to enjoy a thrilling movie!

The film, “Gone Girl”, is a movie with a twist that everyone is talking about - we were no different, with the film cap-turing our attention & generating much thought-provoking post-movie discussion.

Over $400 was raised which will be put toward the annual 'Daughter of Sion’ award which will be presented at the upcoming annual Night of Excellence to a Year 7 or 8 re-cipient who best models the true Sion spirit. The student who receives this award nominates a charity of her choice

for a $500 donation - among recent selections by the winners are the Victorian Women’s Mental Health Network and `Opening the Doors', a foundation that assists Aboriginal children to receive education.

Many thanks to all who helped organise the evening, and all those who attend-ed. Maureen Eldridge (Class of 1991)

Edition 19

Recently Sr. Mary Barbuto shared with me a booklet (translated from French), which details the life and activi-ties of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in France (specifically Grenoble and Paris), Belgium (Antwerp) and Italy (Rome) who hid Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

The booklet is called `Seven Courageous Sisters of Our Lady of Sion’. All the sisters featured in the booklet have received the Medal for the Righteous Amongst the Na-tions, awarded by the organisation Yad Vashem (the living memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem that safeguards the memory of the past and shares its meaning for future generations).

The Righteous Amongst the Nations program is aimed at singling out people who helped the persecuted Jews and recognizing their courage and moral strength. The medals awarded to the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion were all award-ed posthumously. The experiences of these Sisters of Our Lady of Sion and their selfless acts were instrumental in a transformation of the vision of the Sion Order post World War II.

Sr. Mary explains that “In the wake of the enormous suf-fering and extermination of the Jewish people, the Sisters began a deep soul-searching” that saw them asking ques-tions about “the right way to express their love for the Jews”. Following World War II, the vision of the Order un-derwent a radical change from prayer for the conversion of Jewish people to developing and engaging in interfaith dialogue that promotes better understanding between Christians and Jews.

The pioneering work of the Sisters in this area was instru-mental in the Church’s recognition at the Second Vatican Council that God is always faithful to the people whom God chose as God’s own. The Sisters are justifiably proud of the work they did to contribute to the creation of the

document of the Second Vatican Council, Nostra Aetate (‘Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Reli-gions’).

According to the document: “Mindful of her common patrimony with the Jews, and motivated by the Gospel’s spiritual love...the Church deplores the hatred, persecutions and display of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews at any time and from any source...”

As Daughters of Sion, we can all be proud and inspired by the incredible work that the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion have done. May we too embrace the Sionian call to affect positive change in our world.

Profiles of the Sisters will return in 2015.

Emily Webb A monument from the ‘Garden of the Righteous’ at Yad Vashem

Our Proud History

SIONIANS

The Class of 1974 Reunion, which will be held on Saturday 22nd November 2014, recently asked about the words to the old school song (pre Veritas in Caritate). Past student Patsy Crotty, Class of 1962, was kind enough to supply the follow-ing information. The song was written by a student, whose name was possibly Susan, in about 1961/2. We are the young Sionians Valiant and trusty, we, Striving to reach yet higher, Australia’s leaders to be. Sion forever! We place all our trust in you. Sion forever! May our hopes and our dreams come true. Each one a link in the chain Of strength and wisdom and truth All of us pulling together We, Australia’s youth. Sion forever! We place all our trust in you. Sion forever! May our hopes and our dreams come true. The song was set to the tune of the Eton Boating Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leU1kbtIZUI The current school song, Veritas in Caritate, was commis-sioned in 1996 to celebrate ten years of service as Principal of Our Lady at Sion College by Mrs Lucy Molony. Teacher Ann Albrecht composed the lyrics and Fr Christopher Willcock SJ composed the music. Sandy Nicholson College Past Students’ Archivist

1948 - Marie Sharry and Patricia Smith “Take your Deportment”

I shall begin my ‘missive’ by simply saying that my six years as a student of ‘Our Lady of Sion College’ were some of the hap-piest years of my life. The Sisters, their Charism, kindness, forward thinking and devotion to the school made Sion a very happy place. Plus the numerous friends I made and who are still very much a part of my present day life; as are the Sisters themselves, who offer continued support and friendship, all accepting and unquestioning.

I started in Year 7, the last year of the lovely black uniform. Then in Year 8 it was cherry red from head to toe, sold only by Mr Gordon and Margaret, his niece. They came to the school only once a month. His favourite phrase was ‘How’s mother?’ He operated out of the old house where some of the Sisters lived. We also had our Year 12 classroom and the Chapel in the same building. This is where the Learning Resource Cen-tre and the Arts Centre are today. One of our Year 12 class members would play ‘Alley Cat’ on the piano as we entered the class, that is until Sr Patricia Watson locked it.

Our parents were very much involved in fundraising events and College life in general. Each year we had a College fete. Every class had a stall. Mothers made sponge cakes etc. and fathers operated the spinning wheel and provided the manual labour. All money raised went to the College as funds were short. Another fundraiser made use of a cupboard that was underneath the stairs which led up to the Year 8 wing. On the cupboard was a plaque with ‘Papers’ written on it. My father and a few other fathers continually collected and tied up bun-dles of newspapers, stored them in the cupboard and sold them before giving the funds raised to the school. We were certainly taught how to create opportunities!

Many happy memories stay with me. The Sisters obtained their very first car when I was in Year 12, a Ford Falcon Sta-tion wagon. It was very flash. Traitors was the main lunchtime sport, mixed with Netball, Softball and Rounders. The BELL, hand held, was used as a form of Morse code when one of the Sisters was required at the Convent. When we were in Year 12 the Sisters moved into their new ‘digs’ and Chapel. The Sisters’ former quarters are now the Reception area, Administration and Staffrooms. The Learning Resource Centre, Louise Humann Centre and Emmanuelle Learning Centre did not exist, but we were all happy in our various groups and as a student of Sion.

After the Second Vatican Council the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion were one of the first orders to em-brace the new habit, which meant seeing some hair and legs! Life was much simpler then. I could write for pages on my time at Sion but space is limited.

Helen Naughton (nee Murray) Class of 1967

November 2014

SIONIANS

Matriculation Room 1971

Memories of a Past Student From the Archives

I was apprehensive as we organised this reunion, but am so glad that we did! As people walked in the door, their faces also showed some apprehen-sion but that quickly went away and were replaced with lots of smiles, tears and laughter. So many stories were exchanged! I found the day very overwhelming but in a positive way. Many thanks to Robyn McCann for her encouragement and support. Many thanks also to Carolyn Young for giving up her time for the day. Carolyn took us on an excellent tour of the school and helped with the setting up and clean up. All in all it was a fantastic day! We had 33 attend our reunion which I thought was fantastic. Not everyone could make it and people were missed, but those of us who went are now keen to organise a 35 year reunion! Look for-ward to it!

Toni Rigo (nee Lazarro)

In 1979 we were known as the Sion ‘79ers. Thirty five years later a group of us came together for our 35 year reunion on Saturday 13th September for a dinner at the Albion Hotel in Port Melbourne. We caught up with all the news since we last saw each other and reminisced about our days at Sion. We chatted away as if it were yesterday; deep down no one had really changed that much from the young girls we remember at Sion who have grown to be beautiful and confident wom-en. Julie Abbas (Keppell) trav-elled from Queens-land for the dinner and we all vowed to meet up next year. We would love to see more of our class mates then!

Vicki Walsh

November 2014

The annual L’Chaim (Year 10) Careers Seminar was recently held at the College. Past Students Sophie Broadbent (Class of 1996), Real Estate Agent and Auctioneer; Emily Webb (Class of 1994), Writer, Journalist and Current President of the Past Students Association; Jessica Amato (Class of 2003), Medical Doctor specialising in Paediatrics and Alana Lakeland (Class of 2002), Communications Officer at Cricket Australia working with the Australian Women’s Team, spoke of their respective career path jour-neys.

Careers Seminar Upcoming Reunions

10 Year Reunion A 2004 10 Year Reunion is being held on

Saturday 15th November at The Gertrude Hotel

From 3.00pm onwards Please email rmccann@sion.catholic.edu.au

for more details

20 Year Reunion A 20 Year 1994 Reunion is being held on

Sunday 16th November 2014 at Little Creatures Melbourne Dining Hall

222 Brunswick Street Fitzroy From 3.00pm onwards

Please email Emily Micheli on emilyemicheli@gmail.com

for more details

40 Year Reunion A 40 Year 1974 Reunion is being held at

Our Lady of Sion College Saturday 22nd November

2pm—4.30pm

Please email Jill Dickinson (nee McLinden) gillian.dickinson@bigpond.com

for more details

SIONIANS

The next meeting of the

Our Lady of Sion Past Students’ Association will be the

Annual General Meeting

This will be held in the Ratisbonne Board Room

at the College On Tuesday 5th March 2015 at 7.30pm

ALL WELCOME

30 Year Reunion—1984 35 Year Reunion—1979