Holy Rosary CYO reunion brings hundreds to Caribou

CARIBOU, Maine — Over 50 years have passed since the inception of the Holy Rosary Church Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) in Caribou. On July 4 and 5, all those CYO members who have dedicated their time and effort to the CYO were invited to return to Caribou for a reunion — celebrating all those who have been involved with CYO throughout the last half-century. The group of CYO alumni gathered at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center on July 4, where they reminisced about the glory days of the CYO, then gathered for a Saturday morning Mass, before concluding the celebration.
“The reunion far exceeded my expectations on every level,” said reunion coordinator Theresa Dube.  “There were approximately 100 people in attendance, which meant a lot of planning went into the reunion, as it covered a span of 27 years.”
CYO began at Holy Rosary in the fall of 1960 and ended in the spring of 1987. Dube explained that this meant when thinking about reunion activities like scrapbooks and slide shows “we had to be very aware that CYO did cover the full 27 years.”
“It was easy to find information about the time that I was in CYO, but that was just a small slice of the history of the group,” said Dube. “So, when I found out that all of the rosters, attendance sheets, scrapbooks and photo albums were all thrown out, I hit the archives room at the Caribou Public Library and started researching the group by looking through all of the archived copies of the Aroostook Republican. Anytime I saw an article about CYO, Holy Rosary or any of the groups that were affiliated with Holy Rosary, I wrote down the date, page number and where to find it on the page.”
Dube’s work and dedication toward putting the reunion together didn’t stop there, however.
“I later went back to photo copy any and all articles. I also went to all of the archived yearbooks of Caribou High School and photocopied the senior sections of each,” she said. “With all of this information I made a scrapbook for the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s of CYO. Then I went on to make a scrapbook of the history of Holy Rosary Church beginning when it was a mission all the way up to 1987, using all of the information gathered from the archived Aroostook Republicans and some old photos that the church let me photocopy. These scrapbooks were a huge hit at the reunion.”
Dube explained that she also took each trophy and plaque from the trophy case at the Parish Center and photo copied any pictures she could find of the people that earned the trophies or plaques and matched them up.
“This display was also really interesting and sparked a lot of conversations,” said Dube. “The articles will all be on display at the Nylander Museum beginning July 8 through August 8. Then, they will move to the Caribou Historical Society building so that anyone can go and sit to just look over all of these items.”
“One of the greatest parts of the reunion was to get many of the past ‘Serenity’ singers back to sing at the mass. Serenity was a group of teenagers who began to sing together in the early 1970’s. They sang in church, performed at many talent shows, weddings, and other events.”
As the years went on, Dube explained that the singing group changed their name to simply the Folk Group.
“At our reunion mass, we had four of the original “Serenity” members singing with us: Michael Keaton, Lou Willey, Michael Labbe and Pauline Sirois. Lela Lyons and David Keaton each played guitar for the group and then 10 other members joined the original four to make up a fantastic singing group for the Alumni Mass.”
Fr. Richard Ouellette, CYO moderator in the early 1980s, came to celebrate the mass and Fr. Kyle Doustou, the newest priest at Holy Rosary, concelebrated with Fr. Ouellette. Every facet of the mass had CYO alumni serving.
“The two ladies who brought up the Offertory were founding officers in the group, Jackie Daigle Shaw and Arlene Thibodeau Fournier. The ushers, altar servers, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, door greeters, were all affiliated with CYO in some way. Applause broke out after the ‘Serenity’ group sang their recessional song. The people in the congregation were all smiles and were all singing every song with the group. Duane McCubrey of Duane’s Photography captured it all on a video he took of the mass.”
Photos were taken during the Friday night reunion at the Caribou Inn and Convention Center, and these were followed by a great meal and then the guest speakers were invited to the stage. The speakers included Marilyn Beaulieu Bailey, who covered events and happenings that occurred from 1960-65.
Theresa Keaton Dube covered the next five years from 1965-70 with information gathered in her research. Before the event, she interviewed some of the alumni that were in CYO at the time and heard some funny stories that happened during that time period. One of the stories being that Larry Plourde drove the cheerleaders to the games in St. Francis. It was during this time that he met his future wife Nola, who was a cheerleader at the time.
The next speaker was Vicki Dube Labrie. She covered the dates of 1970-1975. Labrie was an active CYO member and later went on to be a Maine State CYO adviser for many years.
The next speaker for the event was David Keaton. Keaton was introduced as an “over-achiever.” He earned his Eagle Scout Award in Boy Scouts and then shortly after was awarded the Eagle of the Cross Award for outstanding service to CYO. He explained that CYO was a group of teens that all had this bond that continued on until today.
“Luke Dyer covered the dates of 1980-1984. “In preparing for this speech, Luke and friend Kevin Sjoberg, took out their bikes and pedaled around Caribou to some of the places they hung out at during their CYO years,” said Dube. “This ride brought them all over Caribou and stopping at each place to talk and reflect on funny stories and times that were ‘sanctioned events’ and some ‘non-sanctioned events.’
Pam Tracy covered the last part of the 1980s of the CYO years. “She was an eloquent speaker and was very funny,” said Dube.
Dube was Mistress of Ceremonies and was given a gavel by David Keaton with the inscription “Thank you for the dedicated service. We love you.” Kayanne Nadeau and Lynn Jackson also gave Dube gifts of appreciation followed by a standing ovation of the CYO alumni in the room.
Following the speakers was a dance with the band Sound Friendship. Many of the band members were CYO alumni as well. They shared the microphones with alumni and sang “Country Roads” by John Denver.
“It was a fantastic weekend full of fun, laughter and reminiscing about life during the CYO years,” said Dube. “One alumni mentioned that CYO was just a small slice of their history, but it was during those years that bonds were made that will simply last a lifetime.”