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<b>First Posted:</b> 6/3/2007<br><br>By Mark Guydish mguydish@www.timesleader.comEducation Reporter 
The portrait of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton &amp;ndash; the first U.S. born person canonized as a Roman Catholic saint &amp;ndash; will find its way from  to Wilkes-Barre as Seton High School closes. The bust of Pope John Paul II in the Nanticoke school &amp;ndash; once one of only two in the nation bearing his name &amp;ndash; will likely find a home in what will be called Good Shepherd Academy in Kingston. A few &amp;ndash; very few &amp;ndash; banners and items from other elementary schools being consolidated have already worked their ways into Good Shepherd&amp;rsquo;s halls.

Some of the more iconic items from the many schools being closed by the Diocese of Scranton seem to be securing a place where they can remain in the public eye. But decades of yearbooks? Photos of the Bishop O&amp;rsquo;Reilly and Bishop Hoban buildings after the 1972 flood? The trophies and plaques that line many hallways, the sports jerseys in colors of teams that will fade from the fields and gyms forever, the class photos of thousands of children who puzzled at their desks and grinned at their graduations? 
These are orphans hanging in a literal limbo, even if the Catholic Church has pushed the term out of its spiritual lexicon.
Ask the fate of decades of memorabilia and the best answer will be prefaced with &amp;ldquo;we think,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;we hope&amp;rdquo; or &amp;ldquo;we heard.&amp;rdquo; But this is a massive restructuring, consolidating four Luzerne County high schools into what is now the Bishop Hoban Building and shuttering eight elementary buildings while converting two high schools &amp;ndash; Bishop Hafey and Bishop O&amp;rsquo;Reilly &amp;ndash; to kindergarten through eighth grade.
The process includes creating a new school governance system at the county level, deciding which teachers keep their jobs and which don&amp;rsquo;t and implementing a new tuition system, among other things. And it&amp;rsquo;s all been happening while the routine events that steal time &amp;ndash; final exams, sports playoffs, graduations, class trips &amp;ndash; go on.
So it&amp;rsquo;s no surprise that principals contacted about memorabilia concede there has been little opportunity to deal with it. O&amp;rsquo;Reilly Principal Susan Dennen summed it up with a tongue-in-cheek warning: &amp;ldquo;Anybody you ask that question is going to punch you in the nose.&amp;rdquo;
Dennen has been putting a lot of thought and effort toward the transition of the Bishop O&amp;rsquo;Reilly building into an elementary center welcoming students from at least four of those closing schools. O&amp;rsquo;Reilly hosted roughly 1,000 of the students from those schools at a &amp;ldquo;transition Mass&amp;rdquo; May 17. The ceremony opened with students carrying banners from each school to the stage, and ended with them donating items representative of each.
St. Boniface School in Wilkes-Barre provided a picture of its patron saint. Sacred Heart of Luzerne donated a picture of Pauline von Mallinckrod, founder of the Sisters of Christian Charity, the order that established the school. Regis Elementary in Forty Fort offered the hand bell used to signal class changes, while Sacred Heart in Wilkes-Barre brought a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. O&amp;rsquo;Reilly contributed a picture of the school, a microscope symbolizing learning, sports trophies and a theater mask representing the arts.
Before the day was over, Dennen had all of them on display and hopes they will stay there when O&amp;rsquo;Reilly becomes Good Shepherd. But O&amp;rsquo;Reilly has more than 50 years of memorabilia alone, and Dennen was unsure of its fate, though she said a committee might be formed to figure it out.
In the meantime, she is trying to pursue an ambitious option: &amp;ldquo;One thing I would like to do is make sure we photograph everything and put it onto disks so whatever decision is made, we will have that.&amp;rdquo;
The Bishop Hoban building may survive as a high school, but the fate of the historic collections of memorabilia is less secure. Asked if plans had been proposed, the Rev. Walter Jenkins, outgoing principal, said simply &amp;ldquo;We have no idea.
&amp;ldquo;We are thinking about some type of heritage room,&amp;rdquo; he added, &amp;ldquo;where items from each school could be put on display.&amp;rdquo; To that end, the faculty and students at least offered what matters most to them at the end of a final school liturgy in the auditorium May 31. Saying the items showed Hoban&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;core values,&amp;rdquo; they presented a large Easter candle as the symbol of &amp;ldquo;the light of Christ,&amp;rdquo; a Bible, a text book, a basketball trophy, a school flag and a family list.
Bishop Hafey Principal P.J. Melvin said he has been told that the school will retain all of its trophies, yearbooks and other memorabilia. &amp;ldquo;There is more than enough room for it,&amp;rdquo; he added. The school is being converted to house &amp;ldquo;Holy Family Academy,&amp;rdquo; the current joint name for the two remaining elementary school buildings, St. Joseph and Holy Spirit. Hazleton will be left without a Catholic high school beyond the Hafey memorabilia.
At Seton Catholic in Pittston, which will be shuttered completely after 143 years of various incarnations, the only certainty involves three icons most representative of the school and its patron saint. &amp;ldquo;A portrait and a framed history of her life, both of which were donated by Bishop J. Carroll McCormick (at the time of the incorporation of the school in 1976) will be taken to Holy Redeemer and given a place of honor,&amp;rdquo; said Sister Mary Ann Cody, director of development.
The school officially became Seton Catholic at McCormick&amp;rsquo;s suggestion. 
&amp;ldquo;There is a statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton donated by class of 1982 in memory of a deceased classmate that will also be taken to the school and given a place of honor,&amp;rdquo; she added. The fate of everything else remains unclear.
Pope John Paul II Principal Karen Traver said her school had considered trying to sell some of the items in a &amp;ldquo;Chinese Auction&amp;rdquo; held each year, but things were too hectic to pull it off. Yearbooks aren&amp;rsquo;t a major problem since they were only printed in the past few years. Trophies are a different matter. 
&amp;ldquo;We are hoping to send the bust of Pope John Paul II to the O&amp;rsquo;Reilly building,&amp;rdquo; she said, but there is little else in the way of plans.
St. Boniface Principal Mary Ann Olszewski was, perhaps, fortunate that the school doesn&amp;rsquo;t have yearbooks from its nine decades plus. &amp;ldquo;We don&amp;rsquo;t really have memorabilia,&amp;rdquo; she said. Yet there are a few items she&amp;rsquo;s trying to find a place for. Some, donated by individuals, may be offered back to them or their families. Some could find &amp;ldquo;a spot in the church&amp;rdquo; next door. 
Traver, Olszewski and others interviewed all said essentially the same thing: In the end, the fate of the keepsakes has taken a back seat to the fate of the students still in the school. Administrators have been working to keep the waning days of their venerable institutions upbeat.
&amp;ldquo;You have to, because regardless of what&amp;rsquo;s happening, it&amp;rsquo;s the children that matter,&amp;rdquo; Olszewski said. &amp;ldquo;You want them to have a positive experience and to remember everything in a positive way.&amp;rdquo; 
A display posted on a bulletin board in St. Boniface tries to capture that approach.
&amp;ldquo;There are two suitcases,&amp;rdquo; Olszewski said. &amp;ldquo;One says &amp;lsquo;we will bring our memories&amp;rsquo; and the other says &amp;lsquo;we will make new memories.&amp;rsquo; And on the bottom it says &amp;lsquo;what&amp;rsquo;s in your suitcase?&amp;rsquo;&amp;rdquo; 
    
Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff writer, can be reached at 829-7161.

Hoping to prevent lapse of memories with Catholic schools merger