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Pam went home, dug through her scrapbooks and found a copy of the program
for the OLP Candlelighting Ceremony that took place in the school auditorium
on December 19, 1969. Pam phoned Joni about her "find" and Joni decided,
with only six weeks to go until Christmas, she was determined to replicate that
ceremony for OLP Alumnae.

Joni contacted William Mitchell College of Law, the current ower/occupant of the
old OLP building and asked to use their auditorium at 5:00 pm on December
23, 2004. It was sheer serendipity that Joni's call was taken by William Mitchell
employee and OLP grad, Jane Nutzmann (class of 1970).

With the date and place nailed down, Joni drafted fellow classmates Emmy
Decker Byrne, Maureen Flood Grau, Colleen Green, Anne Reusch Delaney and
Pam Bailey (all class of 1970) to meet at O'Gara's and formulate a plan to
recreate the Candlelighting program from 35 years ago. They also had to get
the word out to as many grads as possible.

Emmy and Colleen helped Joni track down old class reunion lists and call
alums. E-mail blasts were sent out by everyone to spread the word to sisters
and friends who had graduated in the 22 years of OLP's existence. With only a
couple days to go, Joni contacted the Pioneer Press on a whim and asked for
coverage of the event. The morning of Candlelighting the hometown
newspaper published an article about OLP calling all alumnae to that evening's
ceremony.

That first year about 50 alumnae including sisters, friends and even a stray
Derham grad, showed up for the hastily planned revival of OLP's Candlelighting
Ceremony. In the familiar surroundings of what was once the auditorium of
OLP High School, grads spanning OLP's 22 year history resurrected the
treasured Christmas tradition and shared the bond of a school that hadn't
existed for over three decades.

Thanks to the article in the Pioneer Press, among the attendees that night were
Mary Kay Colbert Dolan (class of 1956) and Maureen Gorman Routzahn (class
of 1958). They volunteered to work on the event for 2005. With Joni in the lead,
Mary Kay, Maureen, Emmy and Pam joined by Kristi Droubie (class of 1972)
and Nancy Riehle Burke (class of 1963) had the luxury of twelve months to plan
the 2005 Candlelighting.

It was decided to formalize our group and call it the OLP Alumnae Association.
A rudimentary website was started and a checking account was opened. To
create awareness, we had a booth at the St. Lukes all-school reunion and
Grand Old Days in the summer of 2005. Our goal was to create a list of ALL
OLP grads including street and e-mail addresses.

To aide in assembling our list of grads, we contacted the BVMs to get
yearbooks. With this contact, we inadvertently hit the mother lode! They BVMs
had maintained a list with addresses for the OLP Alumnae Newsletter they
send out once a year.

To make money to support our efforts, we decided to sell OLP sweat shirts,
T-shirts and mugs -- all sporting the traditional gold logo on a navy background.
Ellen Dudley Burke (class of 1970) tracked down a supplier. We planned to sell
them on the OLP website and at the next Candlelighting. Profits would go to the
BVMs for their capital campaign to renovate their Motherhouse in Dubuque.

As December 2005 approached, our efforts turned toward not only getting the
word out to as many grads as we could via e-mail blasts, but also planning the
program. Nancy Riehle Burke (class of 1963) volunteered to arrange a
projected image of the Holy Family to assimilate the traditional tableau. Nancy
got OLP grad Dennie McCollum Scott (class of 1963) to track down the music
to "Light of the World" which we had to read the first year because no one could
remember the entire melody. Dennie contacted her former OLP music teacher,
Sr. Mary Eliza, got the music and formed a group of her classmates to lead us
in song.

The 2005 ceremony saw triple the attendance including BVMs from Chicago
and Dubuque who had taught and/or attended OLP. Alumnae from every
class attended in 2005. Candlelighting 2005 also recognized those attending
from the class of 1955 who were celebrating 50 years since graduating. The
were also the first class to graduate from OLP.

The 2006 Candlelighting/Reunion for OLP Alumnae was even better than the
previous year. Again alumnae from every class were in attendance. Coffee
and cookies were added after the ceremony for those who wished to socialize.
The traditional tableau of Jesus, Mary and Joseph was recreated on stage
thanks to the efforts of Nancy Burke (Class of 1963) who tracked down some
costumes to borrow. Food donations were taken thanks to Dennie Scott (class
of 1963), who works as Director of Volunteers at Second Harvest Heartland,
and who made arrangements to provide collection containers at the event.