Alumnae History - St. Joseph's Hospital School of Nursing
St. Joseph's Alumnae has always been an active close knit group. There are minutes which date back to the late 1920's. Each new graduating class was welcomed by the Alumnae Association and encouraged to participate. A Silver Jubilee celebration was held June 27th, 28th, 29th, 1927 as per a write up in the 1927-1928 Annual Hospital Report. As well a large Golden Jubilee Celebration was held in 1955. Another highlight was held in 1970 to coincide with the closing of the School of Nursing. All former graduates were invited and a large number attended from near and far. This was under the capable direction of Sister Clare Marie, who although not a St. Joseph's graduate had and still maintains a keen interest in all
Alumnae activities.
During the 1970's we continued to meet but decided we needed to do more to encourage a feeling of belonging. It was decided to "Honour" our long term graduates. In June of 1980, we held our first "Honours" program for the then 50 year graduates the class of 1930. There were six surviving members of the class and three were able to attend. The next year (1981) we honoured the graduates from the class of 1931 and any local graduates from classes up to 1930. That year we honoured six from the class of 31, one from 29, one from 28, one from 26. one from 25, one from 24 and one from 1920 class. In 1982 we began to honour the 40 year graduates along with the 50 year graduates. These early celebrations were held in the hospital cafeteria. When the hospital closed we moved our celebrations to the KOC rooms on Wallace's Road and then finally to our present location at St. Anne's.
To date we have honoured every class up to 1965 and plan to continue our honours program as long as possible. Our Alumnae travel from all parts of Canada and the United States to attend and are very appreciative for the opportunity to greet old friends. All Alumnae are invited to attend along with the honorees. The regular date for these celebrations is the first Sunday in June each year.
A bakeless bake sale is held each fall and this enables us to continue our activities. This is sent out in the form of a newsletter in which we up date members of our activities throughout the year and also list the members deceased during the year.
We have an annual Christmas in Decemeber when Santa visits and we collected for the poor.
Our Alumnae are a great group and always ready to pitch in at anytime and are a very closely knit community.
Our intention is to stay active and I'm sure with all the encouragement and good wishes we will.