SIBU: Members of Sacred Heart Old Students’ Association (SHOSA) were reminded to be on time for their annual general meeting this Saturday.
Its president Hii Chang Kee who is also the Resident of Sibu Division said the meeting will be held at 6.30pm at Kingwood Hotel here, in conjunction with the Grand Reunion Dinner held together with St Elizabeth Old Students’ Association (SEOSA).
“As this is a non-election year for SHOSA, we will just be giving our reports to the members. But we want everyone to be punctual so that our Grand Reunion dinner with the St Elizabeth girls can kick off at 7pm sharp,” he said.
SHOSA is known to be amongst the most active alumni associations and has grown by leaps and bounds through the years as more and more students signed up as members to assist their alma mater.
On the grand reunion which was being organised under SEOSA’s leadership this year, Hii praised the organising committee led by Lucy Tang for their commitment in making it one of the grandest ever.
To-date, we have confirmed attendance of more than 1,200 former students from both schools, he said.
Since the two schools combined their annual reunions, the number of former students participating has been growing and this year looks set to be a record breaking number, Hii enthused.
Former students who have yet to sign up have been urged to contact the organising chair Lucy Tang (016 – 8635536) or Yong King Sung (012-8093155)
“You wouldn’t want to miss this opportunity to renew ties and also to reminisces about our school days,” Hii added.
SHOSA has also successfully gathered the former students under their respective years according to when they were in Form Five.
“We decided to standardize the “graduating year” for everyone by using Form 5 as the year for each batch. It doesn’t matter if you left the school earlier. Just reach out to your classmates and they will group you under the year you would have been if you had studied up to Form 5,” he explained.
At the moment, the most senior year who has signed up would be the Class of 1963 while the youngest year would be the Class of 2002.
SHOSA is also pushing for a fund raising effort amongst former students to help their beloved alma mater settle an outstanding debt of RM150,000 arising from the school’s badly needed re-development.
“Many corporate figures, some of whom weren’t even in Sacred Heart had contributed generously alongside successful personalities from the school. About two years ago, we embarked on a new drive to clear the outstanding debt which has lingered for several years,” he said.
Since then, the Class of ’85 of which Hii belongs to has stepped up and done its part in 2015, while last year the Class of ’66, ’86 and ’88 also stepped up to contribute to the school. And the school’s fund raising effort received another mega boost when one of the most prominent former student Tan Sri Clement Hii, who has contributed very generously over the years stood up again to pledge another RM100,000 to assist the school.
