United & Strong : Past & Present

My school is SMK St Mary Kuala Lumpur. It is 108 years old this year. Our motto is 'I Serve'. Our school song is 'United and Strong'.

Not many KL'ites know about St. Mary's. But after our recent Gala Dinner in July 2019 organised by my alumni club, I can say we're pretty famous now in Malaysia. Thanks to the massive local press coverage, some of which got picked up by international news portals.

All because Tun Siti played the violin. The magical moment captured on hundreds of devices and shared all over the very next day. It was a blessing from above that we got our most famous alumna to be present.

Here she is, at 93 years old serenading 1000 over guests.

Initially, she wanted to play 2 songs. Then on the day before, during rehearsal she told us she would play 3, much to our delight. During rehearsal, we were mesmerised. I really salute her. On the evening of the event, she made arrangements to arrive earlier than scheduled, in order to rehearse one more time. She wanted it to be perfect.

Another secret that no one knows except the organising committee was that Tun M himself wanted to accompany her to the Gala Dinner. To our disappointment, she told us she did not allow him because it would be too tiring for him. What a sweet wife. But I think she secretly wanted to enjoy the evening all by herself. LOL.

July is the birthday month of both Tuns. Our school pastry kitchen baked them a birthday cake and gave her a surprise birthday celebration. A pity Tun M was not there to cut the cake with her.

Watch the birthday video here at the official page of St. Mary's Alumi Club FB page https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2375296442685232

Without a doubt, Tun Siti's performance was the crowd puller. But we lined up wonderful performances from both primary and secondary schools as well to entertain all the donors. And all of the performers that night are competition champions.

Watch the Latin Dance performance here: https://www.facebook.com/SmkStMarysAlumniClub/videos/476405913188010/

Watch the Mask Changing performance here:
https://www.facebook.com/SmkStMarysAlumniClub/videos/709649389485893/

We're so proud of our juniors! Tun Siti was so amazed at the mask changing performance, she told our alumni club president she did not know Malaysia have such talents. Just before she got in her her car to leave for home, we got one of the mask changing performers to 'change mask' right in front of Tun Siti. That delighted her a lot.

We started to plan for the event back in March. We had to sell at least 1000 seats in order to cover all the costs. 100% of the funds raised were to be given to both primary and secondary schools, although the event was hosted by the SMK St Mary's Alumni Club. The real race towards the event began in May when we published the ticket sales. The excitement (& stress!) grew week by week and then day by day as the event drew closer and closer.

It was an amazing experience. I count this as one of my personal achievements. To be in the same photograph as Tun Siti and featured in the news. That's me standing behind Tun Siti, 2nd from the left in the photo at the beginning of this post.

With me in the picture are members of the organising committee comprising my alumni club members, teachers of SK St Mary (primary) and SMK St Mary (secondary) and ex-St. Marians. Truly we were united and strong, past and present!

A big thanks to all my former schoolmates - class of 1993! And my junior schoolmates from year 1994, 1995 & 1996. The 90s batch made up the majority of all the tickets purchased. We've lived up to the school's motto of 'I Serve'!

And special thanks to a few of my personal friends who contributed to the overall success of the event with their support, namely Mr. Richard Tong, Mdm. Mok Pei Fun and Ms. Jiny Goh.

I was in charge of making sure all the performers would be at the main lobby one floor down for photography session with Tun Siti upon her departure. I was quite sad when I got to know that I would miss singing my school song with everyone in the ballroom.

So............... I made the kids sing the school with me at the main lobby while the others sang upstairs. At almost 11pm, we were still very energetic. Best turn down the volume if you want to watch me shouting my lungs off 😂
https://www.facebook.com/awfrances/videos/10157368919497889/

Watch the St Mary Gala Dinner Official Video here :

Video & Photographes credits:
Studio: NEXTPICTURE
Director: Ben Niam
Cinematographer: Keng Hwee, Veggie, Nikco
Photographer: Stanley
Video editor: Tao
Effect editor: Kenny

Disclaimer : Unless stated otherwise, all photographs posted in this blog are owned exclusively by Frances Aw.

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