News & Events
Mercy Day 2024
Some Mercy SF alums joined with the Sisters at Mercy Convent Chapel in Burlingame for Mass and social on Mercy Day, Sept. 24, 2024. Sister Carolyn Krohn gave the following introduction:
It may have been as few as four years for our final graduating class of 2020, or as many as 68 for those in the first class of 1956, or anywhere in between for the rest of you, but it is my great pleasure to begin today by wishing each of you: HAPPY MERCY DAY! Today we celebrate God’s loving mercy to us, which has been so modelled for us by Mary, our mother of Mercy, and on which we remember and celebrate the call to each of us to live out that mercy in our broken world, the call we each first came to know and embrace at 3250-19th Ave.
I’m Sr. Carolyn Krohn, Class of 1965, and it is a delight to see you all here—in fact it is a miracle. Let me tell you why.
When, despite the best efforts of many who hoped to save the school, along with the pandemic came the reality that after 68 years, Mercy’s doors would close.
This meant that everything ended, including the alumnae association. We were no longer a legal entity. We have no office (other than my bedroom here at the Motherhouse), we have no budget, we have no staff. We had to start from scratch.
And so we did resolve to re-found our alumnae group. We contacted our class representatives and invited them to a conversation of what Mercy’s Alumnae Assn could and should be. A volunteer Alumnae Board was appointed from this group and began meeting every two weeks. They are an inspiring group, wanting to keep alive our Mercy spirit and willing to put in the work. They are:
Mary da Silva Abinante ’70
Judi Arbini ‘73
Victoria Murray Baldocchi ‘78
Marguerite Sanders Carmichael ‘83
Debbie Brandt Cesena ‘78
Alex Millard Ghiozzi ‘89
Barbara Conti Giambastini ‘56
Jennifer Desimone Joost ‘96
Georgia Wasley ‘09
We very quickly found out that we needed to deal with organizational and legal issues: In the past year, among other “glamorous” but necessary tasks, we have developed and approved new bylaws, re-established our tax-exempt status with the IRS, filed Articles of Incorporation and registered as a charity with the State of California, and opened a checking account with our meager funds.
We are now in the process of establishing our own email database on Constant Contact so that we can stay in touch. For today’s event we were able to send invitations to class reps, and apparently the word spread in a somewhat random fashion. Once we are on Constant Contact we will be able to communicate with alums directly and it won’t be so hit-and-miss.
So the Mercy SF Alumnae Association is back in business. We’re hopeful that we will be able to have an all-school reunion at CAIS, the former Mercy campus, in the coming months. Jeff Bissell, CAIS’S Head of School, is anxious to welcome us so that we can see the transformed campus. Watch your email for details as our new database gets up and running.
But now, we celebrate what joins us together: the shared memories of our time at Mercy and all that we have learned about what it means to be a “Mercy girl” or should I say a “Mercy woman”. Today we celebrate with not only our Mercy SF community but with those around the world who have inherited the heart of Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy compelling us to reach out to those longing for God’s tender mercy.
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us
Catherine McAuley, pray for us
Mercy Chapel Lives On
When our school was closed, the chapel was decommissioned and much of its contents saved by the Archdioese of San Francisco. Recently, several pieces were re-purposed as part of a new chapel at Vallombrosa Retreat Center in Menlo Park.
You can read about that chapel here:
From the article:
Much of the décor for the new chapel came from another part of the Archdiocese—the now closed Mercy High School chapel in San Francisco. Mercy High School in San Francisco closed in 2020 and was recently sold to the Chinese American International School. Items in their chapel were saved and repurposed for the Vallombrosa chapel. Included in the historical pieces were stained glass windows of our Lady, wood panels with intricate designs, the wooden canopy over the altar, and a wooden image of the Holy Spirit, which now hangs on top of the altar.