chapter 2006 story

The Alumni Association held its 2006 Chapter in St. Louis June 23-25, organized and hosted by Mike Thomas '74 and Donald Lachowicz '80. See pictures at bottom of this page.

Our host hotel was The Oak Grove Inn in South St. Louis County. We gathered in the lobby area for our get together Friday evening beginning around 6 pm. The lounge/dining area was perfect for an evening of socializing. Picnic favorites were prepared on the patio grills and served along with other food items and beverages.

After being assisted by a few alumni who helped with a garden project on Saturday morning, Bro. Donald Lachowicz led a tour of several churches in the early afternoon. Then we celebrated the Eucharist Saturday evening at St. Anthony of Padua—the St. Francis Seraph Church of the Sacred Heart Province.

After dinner, The Voices of Praise, a Spirit led, Spirit fed choir from St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in St. Louis sang for us. Mike Thomas is a member of this outstanding choir. The music was inspiring, entertaining, and excellent! Click the links below to hear a couple songs that were performed that evening. (It might take awhile for the songs to load and start playing -- be patient after clicking or right-click and copy a song to your computer for playing.)

Approximately 40 alumni and guests attended the 2006 Chapter of the Alumni Association. Here are some of the pictures that were taken during that terrific weekend in June:

Mike Thomas: "Our numbers were smaller than desired but we had 3 new guys come and those who came were treated to good weather, good fellowship and good times. Dave Brickner-1975, Mike Sipkoski-1976 and Bob Nowicki-1979 were the newbies. Total we had 25 of us and with families the total came to about 40.

Some rolled in Thursday while the majority rolled in Friday, some after the social had started. We took over the lobby of the Oak Grove Inn for 2 nights of conversation and fellowship but no one, management or other guests, were put out by that, what with us being such sparkling personalities!

Some folk did a Saturday morning work period with Bro Donald, some went on a Church tour with me and others went to the Arch, the brewery or other stuff. Our guys led the music at Mass Saturday afternoon. Fr. Bob Sieg, OFM warmly welcomed us and told the congregation a bit about us as well. Dinner was good (Thanks again for taking care of the payment), the choir was on target and well received then we repaired to the motel for more together time and beer.

Mike Thomas: "The "Rock" is really St. Alphonus Liguori Church. It got its' name "Rock" from the guys who built it. Known locally as The Rock Church or St. Alphonsus Rock. Was consecrated in 1872 and has served as home for Redemptorist mission teams, Provicial residence, Formation house at various times. Still a Redemptorist parish and like many other inner city churches across the country it has seen the neighborhood change over the years. In the 1980's the decision was made to make the Liturgies more Afro- than Euro-centric in response to the neighborhood. The gospel choirs, of which we have 4, were begun then.

The Voices of Praise, under the direction of Min. Malcolm Speed, began around 1988. Malcolm is highly regarded locally and nationally as a writer and performer of Gospel music. He has done several CD's with groups around town and we did one a few years ago consisting of songs by Malcolm and other local writers and the service music we do on Sundays.

One thing about Gospel choirs that still amazes me after all this time is most is rote learning. Very seldom do we have music in front of us and sometimes if we do have the music we don't learn it to the music. When we look in our music binders we have words and cassette tapes to learn from. Our repertoire has to be over 300 songs. Malcolm may play a 5 or 6 measure intro on songs and people will look at each other then one of the girls will recognize it and mouth the title to the rest...it is incredible!"

2006 Chapter: "Meet Me in St. Louis"