Welcome to the official website of the Manresa School Alumni Association. The primary mission of this website is to communicate to Manresa graduates anywhere and everywhere what the Association is doing for them and the School.

By Maricel Gironella-Rodriguez & Cathy Rubio-Trillo

The Class of 1985 hosted a reunion to celebrate their 20th year with a gathering here in the United States. The event held at Stargazer Restaurant in West Hills, California on October 1, 2005 was open to all other Manresa alumni, their family and friends. Schoolmates came from Las Vegas, San Francisco Bay Area and around Los Angeles. Amazingly, almost all of the batch levels from Manresa's first 10 years were represented including Dr. Agnes Rubio-Joaquin '76 who was in the first two classes of elementary graduates. At that time, they did not have a choice but to look elsewhere after graduation because high school was not yet available.

The night was filled with fun, laughter and the occasional "ikaw na ba yan?" There was dinner, dancing, games and even a slumbook going around, a brainchild of Jeanette Sumabat-Ramirez '85. A table set up by Margaret Vida-Higashi '85 highlighted a wonderful collage of pictures from our days in Manresa as well as current pictures. She also rounded up some donations from classmates (Rodolfo Melgarejo '85, Micaela Teodoro '85, Rochelle Maynigo-Barbiran '85 and Maricel Gironella-Rodriguez '85) and set up a silent auction table that caused a commotion from people trying to outbid each other. Rochelle Maynigo-Barbiran '85 and Michelle Pelimiano-Bray '85 also donated prizes for games. On the other side of the room was a slideshow of each classmate's yearbook picture from elementary batch 1981 and high school batch 1985 that Rodolfo Melgarejo '85 painstakingly put together. Once the realization sets that your pictures only come out every so often and the people are probably so preoccupied to even give yours a look then you can start joining the fun. With the help of an amusing DJ, the party was a huge success. In between the limbo rock and the square dance, we all introduced ourselves and talked about what we remember most from our Manresa days. Dr. Agnes Rubio-Joaquin '76 started by talking about all the Sisters and teachers she had during her days. Jayme Vasquez who also donated CDs from his band for our prizes represented batch '82. Batch 1983 came in full force with Jose Mari Manahan, Myra Tayzon and Moniqui Melgarejo-Higashi who drove all the way from Las Vegas. Jose Mari said what everyone has always been thinking, there are only a few of us here in the USA and we should have a reunion every year. Lourdes Rubio spoke for batch 1984 and talked about her days in CAT with the Southridge boys. We hear ya Maloy! Malou deJesus-Millares and Stephanie Ferrer represented batch 1986. They will be celebrating their 20th next year, please invite us. Armand Rubio and Bongchi Miraflor talked about their "bonding" days from batch of 1987. Binky Vasquez-Aguinaldo and Arnel Rubio, representing batch 1988, talked about their siblings who also went to Manresa. Allan Rubio spoke of leaving Manresa for the states before graduating with the batch of 1989 and experiencing cultural differences mainly about girls! Obviously, the Rubio clan made quite an impression. Then the batch of 1985 spoke namely Margaret Vida-Higashi, Judith Almanzor, Rochelle Maynigo-Barbiran, Michelle Pelimiano-Bray, Jeanette Sumabat-Ramirez, Maricel Gironella-Rodriguez, Reena Dungo-Malabanan, Gerrie dela Serna, Cathy Rubio-Trillo and Rodolfo Melgarejo. Each and everyone had something to say about how much fun, terrifying and amazing our experience was at Manresa.

Before the night ended, there was more dancing, laughter, cake and pictures. There was even one moment that night that the Rubio trio (Lourdes, Cathy and Arnel) sang the Mother Candida Hymn "Clara Estrella" from start to finish. Now that is the Manresa spirit! Let's hope there will be more reunions soon.

Here are some pictures from the October 1, 2005 Gathering.

• Reunion Group
  
• Reunion Cake
  
• Group 1
  
• Group 2
  
• MS82 Guest
  
• MS83 Guest
  
• MS85 Memories
  
• Dance Time
  
• Mister Moms
  
• Karaoke