Page 22 - Priorities #15 2001-July

More Than 100 Guests Enjoyed June Reunion
From the Saturday morning soccer tournament to the Sunday mass and brunch with the monks, this reunion will be remembered for high spirits and high-jinks. It was the official reunion year for the ‘06 and ‘01 years. But as always alumni came from across the years.
It was a family weekend with pony rides, Astro- Jump, swimming and supervised open gym for the children. Priory students kept children happy with Chicken Nuggets, video movies and games during the adult events, including the evening banquet and program. Father Martin’s slides from the (ig)noble past were a highlight of the evening, as always.
About 80 adults and 37 children were on hand. The Class of ‘81 turned out in force with 20 members; they repaired to a post-Priory reunion at a private vacation residence following the school event.
An especially poignant moment was when Father Martin held a prayer service for Greg Miodonski, Class of 1981. Greg’s sister, Rose, brought their parents from Santa Rosa for the service and to stay and chat with Greg’s friends. Greg died while a student and a plaque in his honor was placed by the magnificent old oak in the front playing fields.
Other highlights included:
• Three power outages—but the only problem was a slight and temporary deflating of the Astro-Jump.
• Chris Hammond, son of alumnus Rob Hammond and an incoming sixth grader, was delighted to shoot hoops in the gym with Will Camisa, a Priory Athlete of the Year.
• Coach Joe Montero had alumni aplenty to create two good teams for his soccer match.
• An outdoors Happy Hour in Father Maurus’s rose garden was a special hit.
• John Kirch, Class of ‘76, won the distance prize. He came from Tokyo, Japan, just for the reunion. Bela Csikez came from Westford, Massachusetts; Dan Hart from Bangor, Maine; and Hernan Valdes from the Dominican Republic.
• Erhard Wegman helped the Class of ‘76 stand out against all others by hand-screening for each member a t-shirt with his high school photo on it.
Top This!
Unforgettable Stories from Priory Past
Courtney Mitchell, Class of 1969, remembers a ride back to the dorms “enhanced” by a
hitchhiker the boys picked up. The fellow seemed spacey (possibly not a natural high) and said he “didn’t live anywhere” and had no real destination.
The boys brought him back to the Priory, thinking perhaps the monks would let him stay in a spare room. The man joined the monks for dinner in the refectory and his mental state wasn’t too apparent until the monks, the man and the boys were all standing outside after dinner. The fellow looked out on the hill, saw the wind moving through the tall grass, and commented “Wow, what an awesome ocean view!”
There went the chance for the room.
Do you have a better one—funny or sentimental or heroic? Send it to Carolyn Dobervich, 650-851-6139, or cdobervich@woodsidepriory.com
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