Relationships built through the years with classmates, and later alumni, are a significant gift of Sacred Heart education. But parents are also beneficiaries of this gift as they become friends with each other after time spent from birthday parties to basketball courts, volunteering or participating in distinctive Academy traditions.
This week, Charla Niccoli Dziedzic ’75 reflects on decades-long friendships that began when her own children started at the Academy and have flourished ever since, including celebrating New Years Eve together in a long-standing tradition.
A group of alumni parents has been gathering for many years on New Year’s Eve. This is what a quarter century of Sacred Heart alumni parent friendship looks like. As we were reminiscing that evening on our group’s longevity, the common thought was “Who knew?”
When I graduated from the Academy of the Sacred Heart (1975, Eighth Class), I knew I would remain friends with many of my classmates forever. But what I didn’t know, when my children, Rose ’04 and Drew ’07, started at ASH was that my fellow parents would become my lifetime friends also.
As we parents were turning a soccer field into a wine garden for Country Fair, building the New York Brooklyn Bridge in Rauch Memorial for Chemin de Fer, or raising funds for the Sr. Marheineke scholarship with the Mothers’ Club Taste of Christmas, we simply thought we were working hard on behalf of our children’s school. At that time we didn’t know that what we received in return was far greater — forming the bonds that would last longer than the Academy school years of our children. Together, we parents have commemorated their high school graduations, college graduations, marriages, and now babies. We still gather at Country Fair and Chemin to celebrate our friendships (plus not having to do all the work to host the event!).
And now we know — we are blessed to be part of the Sacred Heart family. ❤️
