Saint Francis graduate and board of directors member June Segundo poses with her senior yearbook photo and quote. (HCH Photos | Anna Weaver)
Saint Francis ohana gathers for ‘A Day of Appreciation’ as school prepares to close
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The bitter sometimes comes with the sweet, like with li hing mui.
That was the theme emphasized by Msgr. Gary Secor, the Diocese of Honolulu’s vicar general, in his homily at the April 26 “Day of Appreciation” Mass at Saint Francis School in Manoa.
The 95-year-old Catholic preschool through high school campus will close at the end of the academic year due to financial issues.
Msgr. Gary Secor presided at the May 26 “Day of Appreciation” Mass at Saint Francis School in Manoa. The Mass and the reception that followed took place in the Almeida Student Center. (HCH Photo | Anna Weaver)
As a way of bringing the Saint Francis school community together in celebration of its legacy, head of school Casey Asato organized a low-key “Day of Appreciation.” It started out with the annual student songfest where middle schoolers through high schoolers competed for best performance. Coming out on top this year was the middle school division, which put on an enthusiastic performance complete with confetti and synchronized dance moves.
At 3 p.m., Saint Francis alumni, faculty, staff and students, and many of the Franciscan sisters who live on campus, came together for Mass and a reception.
Msgr. Secor talked about how the closing of the 95-year-old school is one of the many dying and rising moments people experience throughout life.
“All of us have these moments, these li hing mui moments,” he said in his homily in reference to the popular Chinese mouth-puckering treat. “Even in the midst of this, God’s grace and God’s love is being manifested.”
He spoke of how “young people have been encouraged to recognize their own goodness and self worth” at Saint Francis.
“To give up this school is not easy, but Jesus is with us even in this difficult moment.”
Some of the 40 or so Massgoers were visibly emotional during the service, including during the communion song, the Prayer of St. Francis, “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.”
After Mass, more attendees trickled in. They enjoyed heavy pupus, wine and beer, coffee, blue and white (school colors) cupcakes and other refreshments. They caught up with classmates and looked through yearbooks from over the years.
Asato introduced the casual evening program talking about how “truly we have so much to be happy for” at the school. He cited several recent statewide and national school recognitions with athletics, the school TV station and yearbook, and a successful school blood drive.
Saint Francis graduate June Segundo, who is also on the school’s board of directors, said she thought all Saint Francis’ recent accomplishments feel like both a shame, since Saint Francis will soon close, and also a nice way to go out with a bang.
Former head of school and Saint Francis alumna Sister Joan of Arc Souza said she hopes that Saint Francis will be remembered for its remarkable alumni, many of them who have gone on to service in the community.
Over the years Saint Francis School “centered on children who probably would never have seen the inside of a Catholic school if it wasn’t for Saint Francis” due to finances and other difficulties, said Sister Joan of Arc, a Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities.
As an example she mentioned a recent graduate, who had been in the foster care system and struggled at Saint Francis, nearly getting expelled. The school did not give up on him and he graduated.
Saint Francis reached out
“Saint Francis reached out to people nobody cared about,” Sister Joan of Arc said. “But that was what Mother Marianne did.”
“Because of her all this came about for 95 years,” she said of the legacy of Franciscan Sister Marianne Cope, who brought the first Franciscan sisters to Hawaii in the late 1800s to serve Hawaii’s Hansen’s disease patients. The order has been in the islands ever since and expanded its service to other islands and other fields including education.
Two other Saint Francis alumnae who see the spirit of St. Marianne in the school’s student body are Mel Erice, Class of 2001 and a current Saint Francis teacher, and Annie (Llamedo) Ragus, Class of 2002. Erice emceed the evening reception, and Ragus came with her husband Ryan Ragus, Saint Francis’ digital media advisor and technology chair.
Erice and Ragus said Saint Francis students are unique because they are “gritty” service-centered. “Very much in the spirit of Mother Marianne, tough and giving,” Erice said. “She fought for what she believed in.”
Two Class of 1977 alumnae, Melinda Zisko and Petra Pombo, came to celebrate their school. They say that many of their classmates still get together quarterly. They have a Facebook group and just celebrated a joint 60th birthday party where the youngest and oldest classmates blew out candles on their communal birthday cake.
“This was a chance to come together with my sisters to capture a moment and to celebrate our journey together,” Pombo said of the Day of Appreciation.
The last high school graduation ceremony for Saint Francis School will be on May 25 at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. Teachers are under contract through July and the Saint Marianne Cope Preschool finishes its last day of summer session on July 12. Asato said he will be staying on over the next year to assist with the school’s closure.
