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While Americans throughout the world celebrated their Independence
Day, 150 old boys with young hearts from the Class of ’78 celebrated
their 30th anniversary reunion at the Lee Kong Chian Auditorium.
Some alumni returned from the US, Canada, Hong Kong, China,
Indonesia and Malaysia to join in the celebration. Others rearranged
their travel schedules just so they could attend the reunion.
Encouraged by the good turnout
and the numerous rehearsals up to the afternoon itself, the
Organizing Committee felt confident of a good event.
As our seasoned MC, Mr Kelven Tan, was ready to start the evening,
the electricity tripped. All the AV equipment and lights in the
auditorium were incapacitated. “Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21).
After many tense moments, the school technicians managed to restore
only the lights. The student volunteers for the evening worked
feverishly to set up an alternative mobile audio system whilst the
technicians continued to labor over restoring the AV system.
To avoid further delay, the evening program was revised to start
with a group photo shoot instead of speeches, and the audience ended
up on stage after the photo shoot while the speakers stood on the
floor! The address and announcements were cut short as we tried to
get back on schedule for the highlight of the evening … the speech
by our past principal, Mr Earnest Lau.
Luckily, he said that despite the many times when feelings of
despair about us seemed overwhelming, he was glad that we had
matured after 30 years. To add to the nostalgia, his speech to the
150 alumni on stage was delivered the “original” way … without any
microphones.
Only after the initial awkwardness of meeting people whom we had not
seen in decades had passed, was the AV system restored for us to
continue with our program. We are thankful that God had a better
plan for our evening. What had been a rigidly planned occasion was
suddenly turned into a cosy, informal gathering of friends renewing
old friendships, reaffirming old bonds.
The success of the evening showed in the number of alumni staying on
way overtime to continue reminiscing. Also, our reunion raised $
38,000.00 for two annual bursaries for needy students in the ACS
family and for an Emergency Fund for the ACS’78 cohort.
As we reflect upon the evening, we are glad that our ACS training
allowed us to trust in God and to persevere in innovatively turning
the lemons that life deals us into lemonade.
Lim King
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