EGM-cum-Hari Raya Tea on 10.10.09

Dear BBGS Alumnae,

It has been more than a month since we held our mega reunion at Pavilion on 4 August 2009. We were overjoyed as we caught up with our former schoolmates and teachers again. Emotion ran high when we lined up to welcome our former headmistress, Miss Elena M Cooke, as guest-of-honour for the morning event.

For those who missed the “mother of all reunions”, please join us for our EGM-cum-Hari Raya Tea at 2pm on 10 October 2009 (Sat). You can sign on the spot and become immediate BBGSOGA member by paying RM3 (for 2009 only) or RM200 for life membership.

BBGS is alive! Having benefited from a great school with great values, let us now join hands and play our part in nation building. Nisi Dominus Frustra!

BBGS we pledge to thee

Our love and toil in the years to be

When we are grown and take our place

As loyal women with our race.

Phang Sow Yoong 

President 

BBGS Old Girls’ Association 

HP: 012-292 1460 

Email: syphang@gmail.com

………………………………………………………………………………

Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting

Notice is hereby given that an Extraordinary General Meeting of the Bukit Bintang Girls School åOld Girls’ Association (the “OGA”) will be held at;

TIME: 2.00pm

DATE: 10 October 2009 (Sat)

PLACE: Methodist College Kuala Lumpur,

Off Jalan Tun Sambathan 4, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur

AGENDA

1. To consider and to receive the interim accounts in respect of the “Back to BBGS” event held on August 4, 2009.

2. To elect :

2.1 a Vice-President;

2.2 an Honorary Secretary;

2.3 an Assistant Secretary;

2.4 a Sports Secretary;

2.5 a Social Secretary;

2.6 an Honorary Treasurer;

2.7 an ordinary committee member;

Provided that upon the coming into effect of the amendments to the Constitution as passed at the Extraordinary General Meeting held on August 16, 2009, the Sports Secretary and Social Secretary shall be redesignated as ordinary committee members.

3. To appoint two auditors for BBGS OGA who will also audit the accounts in respect of the BACK2BBGS event held on 4 August 2009.

4. To register the BBGS Alumni emblem as copyright of the Bukit Bintang Girls’ School Old Girls’ Association (or BBGS Alumni as it shall be known).

Phang Sow Yoong

President

Kuala Lumpur

18 September 2009

Enclosure

1. Emblem of BBGS Alumni

BBGS Ethos

Souvenirs to Keep BBGS Memories Alive

Photo courtesy of Rosemarie Peng


If you missed buying these souvenirs during the BACK2BBGS Event held at Pavilion on 4 August, you will be able to buy them at the EGM-cum-Hari Raya Tea on 10.10.09. Watch out for our value packs and special offers!

Even Disability Couldn't Dampen the BBGS Spirit

By Karen Lau (Paris)


Karen (right) with Lisa in the center.

When my buddy, Lisa Leong Yun Ping showed me the article in the Star about the BACK2BBGS event at Pavilion, she told me she wanted to attend the function. Three years ago, Lisa had a stroke and lapsed into a coma for five days.

In my heart I thought that it might be better for Lisa to stay at home as people would stare at her for being in a wheelchair. I was really glad that Susan Foong got her a ticket and informed her to use the back entrance that was more disabled-friendly.

When we arrived at Pavilion, everybody was busy chatting with one another. Lisa was excited and happy to see so many of her schoolmates. Well, if Lisa made such a great attempt to come for the event, where are the others? Wouldn’t they regret missing this happy day?

Then I saw Miss Cooke walking in slowly, flatly refusing to use a wheelchair despite her frailty. I was choked with emotions and cried tears of happiness when the emcee, Norini prompted us to greet our beloved headmistress: "Good morning Miss Cooke". It was so good to sing the school song again, “BBGS, we pledge to thee…”

Norini was so real throughout the event that I just could not hold back my tears that kept welling up. It has been 37 years since I was a schoolgirl wearing well-starched uniform, white socks and shoes.

Indeed, 4 August 2009 was one of my happiest days when I was to be able to meet Miss Cooke, Miss Moey, Miss Yeo and Mrs Thanen again. The bonus was a bear hug from Mrs Junie Simon who still remembers me. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Keep the BBGS spirit alive!

Note: Karen Lau, who now lives in Paris with her family, was really happy to be back in Kuala Lumpur for the BACK2BBGS event. She left BBGS in 1972, but BBGS has never left her—even in Paris. Together with some BBGSians in Paris, Karen organises sightseeing, ‘nasi lemak’ picnics, CNY ‘yee sang’ dinners for Malaysians living in France.

A Carnival to Celebrate Breast Health

Dr Evelyn Ho (BBGS Class of 1979) is passionate about educating women on breast health. She comes up with creative ways of encouraging breast cancer survivors to live life to the fullest. She would like to share this announcement with BBGS alumnae...


OutRageously PiNk Nite (OPN) is back in Bangsar on 7 Nov 2009. Don't know what you missed previously in 2004, then, check out the reports at www.radiologymalaysia.org/breasthealth

In the run up to the event, Radiology Malaysia is running some fun, easy going contests.

3-word slogan for OutRageously PiNk Nite 2009. In just 3 words, come up with something that describes or embodies the spirit of OutRageously Pink Nite 2009 – a carnival like event to celebrate breast health. (For example: Live Life Fully or Joy, Fun, Laughter).

3-min Digital Video Create a 3-min digital video (like an advertisement or story) on your mobile phone, camera or videocam that is centred/themed on “Living Life to the Fullest even with Breast Cancer".

Contests end 30 Sep 2009. So hurry, put on your thinking caps now. Check it out:
www.radiologymalaysia.org/opn2009

Nostalgia Overload

Lee Su Kim (right) with her friends at the Back2BBGS event.


It felt like walking through a time tunnel ...treading on what was once BBGS soil, then emerging in the huge cavernous main plaza to see so many familiar faces - of old friends, school prefects, house captains, school captains, teachers, ( Mrs Boler, Mrs Simon, Mrs Thanen, etc) the school jaga, the school clerk and Ms Cooke, the living legend herself looking frail but still feisty -- it was Nostalgia Overload.

So many of us had tears in our eyes. I couldnt stop tearing up myself. I wondered why. It wasn't that we were weeping for our school anymore - that is past and gone and we have accepted it if never quite reconciled with the way it was downed. A quiet heartache is that its existence is still not memorialized in some form or other and we wait patiently for that recognition of a great school.

I think the tears were for our youth, for a time when we were innocent, carefree schoolgirls, for a time that can never be again, but always treasured in our hearts. As we reach middle age and beyond, we are astonished that feeling of being and feeling young is still there bubbling away inside us, and it all came alive again that special day.


Professor Madya Dr. Lee Su Kim, School of Language Studies & Linguistics Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, is from the Class of 1972.