Marymount High School's founding order, the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters, recently celebrated the order's 155th birthday with a Founders Day Assembly and liturgy attended by students, faculty, staff and a number of the RSHM sisters. It is also the 80th anniversary of Marymount in Los Angeles.

Sister Marilyn Ficht, who recently returned from Zambia, Africa, made a presentation about her five-year ministry in the African country, most recently as a teacher at St. Joseph's School in Chivuna.

She also thanked Marymount students for raising $4,000 last year to assist the Zambian all-girls high school with a renovation project.

The Marymount community received a letter from the RSHM sisters in Chivuna outlining what a significant difference the funds made to the school. Previously the students at St. Joseph's, most of whom are resident students, were forced to study while a family of owls that lived in the ceiling swept down over their heads during study time. They had no blackboards left for writing, and the floor and walls were covered with holes. Today, their dreams of new floors, ceilings, blackboards and paint have been answered.

Marymount continued its anniversary celebrations with a Mass presided by Father Charles Chilinda of Zambia who is currently studying at Loyola Marymount University.

Dr. Mary Ellen Gozdecki, head of school, said a special "thank you" to Marymount New York for their generous gift of four trees to help California rebuild after the forest fires this past fall.