SHAMOKIN - For some St. Stanislaus Catholic School alumni, Sunday marked the first time they walked inside their former classroooms since they graduated from the school, or ate a meal in the cafeteria.
Graduates between 1928 to 1985 and a few faculty members returned to the Race Street school building Sunday for the first-ever school-wide reunion.
After an interest in such a gathering was expressed around town and on Facebook, it was Mary (Narkiewicz) Harmon, with the help of her volunteer staff, who got the ball rolling and made it happen.
"I got so much support from everyone who helped me out with this," Harmon said. "What absolutely thrills me is the response that I got from the people that wanted to come today."
According to the reunion's program, the response came from over 150 graduates of the school, from the earliest class attendee, Clem Switaj, class of 1928, who was given the honor of presenting the host at the reunion Mass at Mother Cabrini Church, to a member of the last class, Angela (Boblick) Fulginiti, class of 1985.
1985 was the final year of operation for St. Stanislaus' school - a result of its consolidation with St. Edward's and West Catholic schools to form Queen of Peace Catholic Schools.
The day's festivities started with the Mass, celebrated by the Most Rev. Joseph McFadden, Bishop for the Diocese of Harrisburg.
In keeping with the Polish tradition of the school, the bishop was given traditional gifts, a loaf of bread and a dish of salt - the salt to preserve life and the bread to sustain life.
The bishop also received the gift of a school bell used in 1962 and a report card belonging to Celia (Targonski) Zaneski, the oldest alum attending the reunion at 97 years old.
"Celia was a good student," McFadden noted, "She got all A's here."
The Mass's homily was given by The Rev. Joseph Bayne, a former parochial vicar at the school.
"Everyone in his church has been blessed by St. Stan's School," Bayne said. "When you graduated, you left with not only the gifts of academia, but with the Holy Spirit as well, much like the Apostles were on this Pentecostal Sunday."
"Keep the spirit of St. Stanislaus School alive in you, and in your service to God," Bayne said. "What went on there was very special to all of us."
Following the Mass, the dinner and reunion moved to the former school, now the Mother Cabrini Social and Education Center. When not sharing stories of old times with one another, some walked up to the second floor to walk through old classrooms, lavatories and offices.
"This really takes me back," said Fulginiti, a member of the last graduating class of the school in 1985, who walked the halls with her mother, Kathy, a 1959 graduate.
"The long hallway to the girls room, the principal's office, this classroom which was fourth grade," she reminsenced. "So many great memories here."