Two Alumni Commemorate Their Classmates

In the summer of 2009 Lycée alumnus Christopher Atamian (‘84) saw a labor of love come to fruition. His work to find a place to commemorate several classmates who had passed away was completed and it now sits proudly amid the flora and respite seekers of Central Park. On the path that leads from 72nd Street and Fifth Avenue into Central Park one can find the bench with a plaque that reads:

In Memoriam: Costanza Anchisi, Nicolas Dupont, Sapho Garelli, Simone Mlingui, Hélène Nguyen, Adel Pakzad, Zena Tadmoury. From the Lycée Français de New York, Class of 1984.

Nostalgia was the driving force behind the bench’s Central Park location, a place where Christopher and his classmates would go to play after school when two of the Lycée’s four buildings were located at 72nd Street near Fifth Avenue. “The park was our playground back then,” explained Christopher. “It was a second home to us, a place where our imaginations—and we—sometimes ran wild.” These are words that Christopher found himself repeating numerous times while he rallied fellow alumni to contribute to the park bench to commemorate their friends.

After a year of facebook messages and numerous phone calls and emails, Christopher convinced 20 of his classmates to donate to the commemorative park bench, with a lead donation of $3,000 coming from Marlene Mouttet. The bench, funded through the Central Park Conservancy, cost $7,500, money that will go towards the park’s continued upkeep and beautification. And now there is that special place in Central Park to go and remember departed friends from the class of 1984. Christopher’s efforts took place as a precursor to the activities and initiatives of today’s Lycée alumni program in which alumni and the school actively seek out one another to collaborate on such projects.

Fast forward to the Lycée in 2011, with an alumni program emerging from the design phase and thus the school actively re-engaging alumni. Class of 1980 alumnae Joelle Reilly is undertaking the same labor of love Christopher Atamian had in 2009. Joelle and several of her classmates are currently gathering funds to dedicate a bench to people from their class and the classes ’79 and ’80 who had passed away. But this bench will be located at the Lycee.

Once the decision was made to fund a commemorative bench, Joelle approached the Alumni Office to discuss the best possible way to organize the project and place a bench in the school. “It is such an emotional project and so important, I wanted it to be handled by the school because I knew it would be done with care,” she remarked.

She knew to seek the assistance of the alumni program because, in addition to being a teacher at the Lycée, Joelle had attended a class reunion earlier this year that was co-organized by the Alumni Office and held on campus. The event was a huge success. In addition to reconnecting old friends, the reunion was the catalyst which contributed to the idea of placing the bench at the school. Joelle and several of her classmates were getting together since the reunion to brainstorm over fundraising possibilities to commemorate their friends, and when the idea of a bench was presented, she proposed it be located in the school. “I thought it would be great for us to have a place in the new building; for the members of my class to feel included in this space, this community.”

Joelle understands well that fundraising is the most important component to acquiring the bench and securing its placement at the Lycée, but for her and her classmates this project is really about community. “I don’t want people to prevent themselves from giving because they feel they cannot give a lot. I want them to give what they can,” she explained. “What is important is that once the bench is placed in the school, it will be used by the Lycée community every day. Our classmates will be with us every day.”

The individuals being honored by Joelle and her classmates are:

Michel Colbert (’80), Marc Boleis (’79), Marcel Bruell (’80), Francesca Scarsini (79), Julien Lanoé (’79)

To find out more information or to donate to the commemorative bench project, please contact the Lycée’s Alumni Relations Coordinator, Claude Aska, at caska@lfny.org or 212-439-3867.

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