For almost 60 years, Cornelia Connelly High School (CCHS) in Anaheim educated and inspired young women to learn, grow spiritually and serve others.
So, when it was announced in October 2019 that declining enrollment, diminishing funds and mounting debt were forcing the all-girls Catholic school to close its doors after the 2019-20 school year, a group of alumnae wanted to ensure the Connelly spirit endures.
A MEMBERS OF THE CORNELIA CONNELLY HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION CRAFTS A NO-SEW BLANKET FOR FOSTER LOVE, A BREA NONPROFIT THAT PROVIDES SERVICES AND RESOURCE TO YOUTH IN THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM. PHOTO BY LOU PONSI/DIOCESE OF ORANGE
The Cornelia Connelly High School Alumnae Association was formed to provide a means for CCHS graduates, former students, teachers and administrators to organize reunions and serve the community.
“We found that there was a real desire to want to have that connection,” said Bev Locy Taylor, a 1977 CCHS graduate and co-president of the alumnae association. “There was such joy at that school and the sisters were amazing. They were great mentors and leaders for us. As women, they empowered us. They gave us good guidance to be able to go out to the world and become strong, empowered women. And I think most of the people will agree that what we want is to continue that spirit.”
Now almost a year old, the goal of the alumnae association is to be guided by Christian principles in all its activities.
THE CORNELIA CONNELLY HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION WAS FORMED TO PROVIDE A MEANS FOR GRADUATES, FORMER STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO REUNITE AND SERVE THE COMMUNITY.
“The kind of Catholic principles, Christian principles, that you were taught at Connelly,” Taylor said.
The alumnae association’s first event was an all-class reunion held in April 2023 at Mayfield High School in Pasadena. About 100 former Connelly students attended.
Alumnae association members suggested that being a service should be driving factor in planning future events, Taylor said.
So, for the second event in January, the group met at Santa Margarita Catholic High School to craft no-sew blankets which were then donated to Foster Love, a Brea nonprofit that provides services and resource to youth in the foster care system.
The school was established in 1961 by the Sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and named after Cornelia Connelly, who founded the congregation in 1846.
Connelly, incidentally, has been proposed for sainthood in the Catholic Church. She was proclaimed as venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1992.
A formal alumnae association hadn’t existed prior to the school’s closure and there was little communication among former Connelly students, said 1994 graduate Lisa Pereda Butcher, who serves as co-president of the group, along with Taylor.
They reached out to the Society of Holy Child Jesus, which provided contact information for Connelly graduates and organizers began reaching out.
“We’re civic-minded and very dutiful to our Alma Mater,” Butcher said. “We decided that we wanted to connect.
Butcher and Taylor had already been friends from their involvement in the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, Connelly’s governing agency body.
As the group grows and organizes, they plan to do organize more service-oriented projects and be a resource for Connelly graduates to organize class reunions.
Alumnae association member Kathy Sprinkles attended Connolly in 1961, the year the school opened with only a freshman class. Sprinkles attended for four years and became a member of the school’s first ever graduating class in 1965. She said there were attempts to form an alumnae association in the past, but nothing came out of it.
“But now that it’s closed, I think maybe there was a bigger desire to get it going because we didn’t have any place to go visit anymore,” Sprinkles said. “And this is just for the spirit more than anything. Because we’re all bound by the same spirit, the same laws of love and kindness and joy and service … Christian principles, that you were taught at Connelly.”